Chapter 259: Explanation
Chapter 259: Explanation
Lu Hui's body was first transported to the Daotinsi in Tongxian City, and an executive went to report to Zhou Zhangsi.
As soon as Zhou Zhangsi heard the news, his eyebrows furrowed. But when he saw Lu Hui's corpse, his brow furrowed even deeper, and he couldn't help but sigh in anger, "That brat Zhang Lan is causing trouble for me again."
This Lu Dianshi, with his full beard and majestic aura, had traveled all the way to Tongxian City, but after entering the mountains with Zhang Lan, he turned into a lifeless corpse in the blink of an eye.
What's more, he was dismembered and his body was incomplete.
How was he going to explain this to Qingxuan City?
Could Zhang Lan have nothing to do with this? Who would believe that if it got out?
Zhou Zhangsi asked the executive, "What happened?"
The executive bowed and said, "According to Zhang Dianshi, Lu Dianshi was chasing the bald monk when he was ambushed and badly injured. While escorting the bald monk, they encountered a demon beast, and unfortunately, Lu Dianshi died in the mouth of the beast while performing his duties."
"Died in the line of duty?" Zhou Zhangsi coldly humphed, "He's trying to push the blame cleanly. This man didn't die honorably, but at least he has a respectable excuse."
"But does he take others for fools? The corpse is here. How can those with a discerning eye not see how Lu Hui really died?" Zhou Zhangsi thought to himself as he shook his head and examined Lu Hui's corpse once more, sweeping it with his spiritual sense. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
This technique... it's quite clean.
There were only two fatal wounds on Lu Hui's body.
One was inflicted by a cultivator, leaving traces of faint white wind-based spiritual power around the wound.
The one who injured him was obviously the bald monk.
Wind-based spiritual roots are quite rare, and they couldn't find a cultivator with wind-based spiritual roots in their Daotinsi.
None of the cultivators on this trip had wind-attributed spiritual roots, so this spiritual power was genuine.
The other type of wound was from the bite of a demon beast.
The wound still had the beast's putrid saliva and scarlet demonic energy, clearly indicating that he was torn apart by a demon beast.
This, too, could not be falsified.
Zhou Zhangsi was relieved and felt that Zhang Lan was indeed teachable.
There were some things he could do, but he shouldn't leave any loopholes or cause trouble for the Daotinsi.
As long as he turned a blind eye, it would be as if nothing had happened, and there would be an explanation for the outside world.
With an explanation and no trouble, Zhou Zhangsi felt at ease.
He glanced at Lu Hui's corpse once more and thought to himself, "Good riddance!"
The Daotinsi of Qingxuan City, from top to bottom, was filled with despicable people. What kind of people were they?
Though Zhou Zhangsi didn't say it aloud, he felt a deep disdain in his heart.
While he might not be considered upright and honest himself, he still had a conscience and would only take bribes, not resort to vampiric practices that sucked people dry, not even spitting out their bones.
However, he was just the Zhangsi of Tongxian City, in charge of only this small area, and he couldn't meddle in the affairs of Qingxuan City.
Zhou Zhangsi sighed, then became curious.
I'll translate the text while following the guidelines.
Looking at Lu Hui's injuries, it was clear that he was indeed injured by the bald monk and then killed by the demon beast.
But the matter was probably not that simple.
Lu Hui was full of tricks; he shouldn't have been so stupid...
Lu Hui was at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, and so was Zhang Lan. Zhang Lan's strength was slightly higher, but it was impossible for him to kill Lu Hui without leaving a trace.
Someone must have helped.
Zhou Zhangsi silently calculated.
Mo Shan and Ji Qingbai, who had entered the mountain with Zhang Lan, would most likely lend a hand.
Who else was there?
In his mind's eye, he saw Mo Hua's cunning gaze flash by.
Zhou Zhangsi paused in the middle of stroking his beard, slightly startled. "Could that child, Mo Hua, have also made a move...?"
The more Zhou Zhangsi thought about it, the more he felt it was possible.
After getting to know Mo Hua, he realized that although the child was young, one couldn't judge them by common sense.
Mo Hua was meticulous in thought, always planning before acting, and their methods were clean, leaving no traces.
Zhou Zhangsi nodded, then looked at Lu Hui and praised, "Well done!"
At this moment, Mo Hua, Zhang Lan, and the others were still in the valley where the rogue cultivator was hiding.
Inside the caves were beds, pills, spiritual artifacts, food, and other items used by cultivators in their daily lives and cultivation practices, indicating that this group of rogue cultivators had been hiding out here for quite some time.
The cultivators from the Daotinsi took care of the rogue cultivators in the valley, killing those who needed to be killed and capturing the rest, not letting a single one slip away.
The next step was to search for and confiscate the stolen goods.
This group of rogue cultivators had been robbing and killing people, amassing quite a collection of loot. All sorts of items were hidden in this valley.
Some of the less valuable items were not well-guarded and were scattered everywhere.
The cultivators from the Daotinsi searched each cave one by one, inventorying and recording the stolen goods before placing them in the center of the valley.
The valley was already piled high with various items.
There were spiritual artifacts, pills, books, and all sorts of miscellaneous items.
But it was clear that something was missing.
The bald monk had been robbing people in Dahuishan for a long time, so it was unlikely that this was all he had stolen.
"Where is the rest of it hidden?"
Zhang Lan furrowed his brows as he continued to search the valley, extending his spiritual sense to look for any hidden rooms or mechanisms.
Then he noticed Mo Hua standing in front of a stone wall, deep in thought about something.
Zhang Lan walked over and knocked on the stone wall with his hand, but the sound seemed normal.
"Is it empty?" Zhang Lan asked.
Mo Hua nodded.
Zhang Lan swept the area with his spiritual sense several times but didn't find anything unusual. It seemed like an ordinary stone wall, so he asked, "How did you figure that out?"
"I could tell with a single sweep of my spiritual sense," Mo Hua replied casually.
"Alright then," Zhang Lan sighed.
Despite his reluctance to admit it, he had to acknowledge the truth.
This kid's spiritual sense was now stronger than his own.
At least he could take solace in the fact that he wasn't the only one; most cultivators at the ninth layer of Qi Refining had weaker spiritual sense compared to Mo Hua.
"Can we break it open?" Zhang Lan asked.
Mo Hua shook his head. "There's an array inside. Breaking it open would be troublesome, and we don't know if there are any mechanisms or traps."
"Do you have a way?" Zhang Lan inquired.
Mo Hua nodded. "I'll try to dismantle the array."
Zhang Lan's eyes widened, and he asked, "Dismantle the array?"
"Yes, do you know about that too, Uncle Zhang?" Mo Hua looked at him curiously.
"Of course," Zhang Lan replied nonchalantly, but his heart skipped a beat.
How did this kid even learn to dismantle arrays? He had only heard the term "dismantling arrays" mentioned briefly by the array master at the Zhang family's ancestral school. Even then, the explanation was vague and lacking in detail.
The array master himself didn't seem to fully understand the intricacies of dismantling arrays, saying that it wasn't something that an ordinary array master could easily learn.
First, it was copying arrays, and now it's dismantling them.
Are these really the things a first-rank array master should know?
Zhang Lan coughed and cautiously asked, "This dismantling array... it's not going to be easy, is it? If we can't dismantle it, we'll just smash it open."
Mo Hua scratched his head.
He had been observing the stone wall, trying to figure out what kind of array was used and how to dismantle it with the appropriate array patterns.
After some time, he had a general idea of what he needed to do.
"It's fine, I'll handle it," Mo Hua said. "The array isn't that complicated; it's probably not even first-rank. It should be easy to dismantle."
Mo Hua used a modest description to downplay the difficulty.
While it was true that dismantling an array below first-rank was relatively easy, he didn't want to sound overly confident in case something went wrong. Failing to dismantle the array would be embarrassing.
"Not first-rank, and easy to dismantle..." Zhang Lan sighed.
Well, some people just have a talent for making others feel inferior.
Zhang Lan patted Mo Hua's shoulder and said, "Then we're counting on you."
(End of Chapter)
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