One had to admit that the balance of a martial arts master was truly formidable. Wei Qingming sat atop the galloping celestial horse and fell fast asleep, her hands resting loosely on her knees without any support, her back remaining as straight as a pine tree even in her dreams.
I felt a mix of amusement and heartache. Seeing a busy person like Wei Qingming sleep was a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, so I took the liberty of leaning in close to study her face. She had claimed the night was cold and made me wear her cloak, yet she remained in her thin, delicate spring robes, seemingly unafraid of the chill. Her head was slightly lowered, but she maintained her poise, keeping herself exactly half an inch away from my back. I wanted to poke her cheek, but I didn't dare let go of the reins, so I resorted to nudging her with my nose...
Hah, what a character. She still didn't wake up.
I fell into a brief contemplation. This normally inviolable lady was now completely at my mercy. Should I get a bit handsy? You know, just to check if she was healthy in all the right places!
After hesitating for a long while, I ultimately remembered that this woman was a dangerous spymaster. She might have some powerful protective cultivation—like an enhanced version of that Blade Mist—and if she gave me a reflexive strike, wouldn't we both fall to our deaths and take this innocent little horse with us?
In the end, looking at the faint dark circles under her eyes, I couldn't bear to do it. I took her left hand and held it in mine, just in case she fell too deeply asleep and toppled over. No matter what level of cultivation one reached, sleep remained an instinctive need that meditation could never truly replace. Was it because there were too many cases lately? Between that old Emperor and Eunuch Feng, how could they overwork such a talent? My "cousin" wasn't even of age yet, alright!
The light marker was closer than I expected. After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, we arrived at our destination, and I guided the horse to land. Wei Qingming still hadn't woken up, and I didn't know the next step. Though I hated to do it, I had to wake her.
"Master Wei?" I patted her cheek. "Master Wei! Wei the Third! Cousin! Time to get up!"
Only then did she let out a raspy "Mm." In an instant, she regained her cool clarity, vaulted off the horse, and offered me a hand.
I stuck out my tongue and made a "shame on you" gesture, but she wasn't embarrassed at all. Instead, she offered a faint remark: "To have a beauty hold the reins for me is the fortune of three lifetimes."
*Thick-skinned and sweet-tongued, no wonder she climbed the ranks so fast!* I cursed her silently in my head before placing my hand in hers. Wei Qingming lightly supported my waist and lifted me down from the horse.
This place turned out to be the nearest teleportation array on the outskirts of the capital. Wei Qingming produced the jade plaque of the Yingzhao Temple. The station official on duty inspected it respectfully and asked, "Does the Master have official documents?" Master Wei handed him the documents and signed the register as proof before the minor officials opened the array. The station official invited us onto the platform and thoughtfully advised, "The various entrances to the Imperial Tombs are currently under maintenance. Master might wish to take a detour and enter through the newly repaired East Gate."
"Understood," Wei Qingming replied indifferently, tossing him two fire crystals. "The climate-control arrays here are a bit loose. Report it soon so you don't suffer through the nights."
The official accepted them with joy. "Yes, yes! No wonder it's nearly summer yet the nights are still so cold; it turns out the array was broken. Master is truly benevolent!"
As we stood in the center of the teleportation array waiting for it to activate, I saw that the others had moved away and leaned toward Wei Qingming to tease her. "I never noticed before, but Master Wei is quite the considerate soul!"
"The stations are vital locations, so I pay attention," she answered without a flicker of an emotion.
"Ooh, look at you, such a loyal and virtuous official..."
With a loud *creak*, the ground beneath us shook violently, like an ancient beast suddenly startled from its slumber. The teleportation began. I had thought all teleportation arrays were as comfortable as the one at Chunan Pavilion, but I was caught off guard and stumbled. Wei Qingming seemed to have expected it and caught me with practiced ease.
"There will be some discomfort. Close your eyes."
Taking an inch and wanting a mile, I leaned into her embrace like I had no bones. After all, this was a spatial spell covering over two hundred miles; it couldn't be instantaneous. In the deep, pure darkness, I could only hear her steady, long breaths, and the nausea and dizziness in my heart gradually faded.
"Is this teleportation array a bit old? It's far worse than the one at Chunan Pavilion!"
Wei Qingming gave a light huff. "That gold-consuming hole was naturally built at an extraordinary cost."
"You government types need to keep up with the times!"
"The reason is simple: a lack of money," she said. "His Majesty has been on the throne for ten years, and the national treasury only recently showed a slight surplus. There has been no war for over a century, yet the border roads are still in disrepair; naturally, the interior is even more neglected."
When it came to court affairs, I wasn't just ignorant—I had practically never heard of them. But rarely, if she was willing to speak, I was willing to listen. I pricked up my ears and waited for a while, but she didn't say another word. I could only say, "Then, you'll have a lot to do in the future?"
"I do what I can," she said in a low voice, then added with a hint of a smile, "It's not that I'm a loyal official; it's just that doing these things is currently somewhat interesting. If I ever get bored, I'll wash my hands of it. It wouldn't be bad to go be a bandit at your Ten Thousand Demons Stronghold."
"You?" I imagined her dressed in furs, blocking a road to rob travelers, and burst out laughing.
Stepping onto Lengquan Mountain again brought a flood of emotions. This massive, pitch-black forest was deep and freezing, enough to make anyone tremble with fear, but knowing I had a peerless killing god by my side made me feel quite secure. After seeing so many people in the capital, being in such a desolate place felt a bit strange. Near the East Gate, several female Daoists were brewing tea and chatting, the firelight glowing a warm red.
"Greetings, Sisters," Wei Qingming said, cupping her hands politely.
"Oh, it's Junior Brother Wei!" one of the female cultivators with thin brows and curved eyes said with a smile. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
"A month ago, I came here with several senior brothers to investigate the arrays. There are some loose ends to tie up," Wei Qingming said calmly. "I didn't expect to run into Sister Liu here."
This cultivator named Liu Qingwu was elegantly dressed and possessed a refined beauty. Her peach-blossom face with its pointed chin was naturally glamorous, and her penchant for smiling made her seem very approachable. She noticed me hovering like a timid quail behind Wei Qingming and tilted her chin, smiling. "Bringing a lady to tie up loose ends? That's a sweet assignment, while we're stuck here blowing in the cold wind!"
Wei Qingming only offered a slight smile, intending to explain nothing. The young women broke into a chorus of giggles, showing a youthful innocence that was entirely different from the frost-covered immortals depicted in paintings. However, aside from Liu Qingwu, who was older and held a higher status, the other female cultivators only laughed and didn't dare to join in teasing Wei Qingming. Although Wei Qingming was always perfectly polite, she kept her distance and didn't say much more, cupping her hands before leading me into the Imperial Tomb district, heading straight for the tomb of Zhong He.
"Who is that Sister Liu?" I asked curiously.
"Does Miss Su know of the person with the highest cultivation in our sect, Perfected Cangjiang?"
"Of course!" I said. "One of the six Great Cultivators in the late Cloud-Feasting stage!" I rolled my eyes and decided to annoy her: "Aside from Perfected Starblade of the Tianjun Sect, she's the most powerful. Number two in the world!"
Wei Qingming wasn't annoyed at all, merely stating, "She is now at the Great Perfection of the late stage."
"Oh!" I clapped my hands. "Then those two are in for a real fight."
"Sister Liu is the disciple of Martial Aunt Cangjiang," Wei Qingming said. "Logically, she shouldn't be assigned to such a minor task..."
To straighten out the clues, we entered from the same spot where we had fallen that night. Wei Qingming sent out a signal talisman, and from the silent wilderness, over a dozen men in black suddenly emerged. The leader knelt on one knee to Wei Qingming. "Greetings, Emissary."
I jumped in surprise. Wei Qingming raised her sleeve. "Captain Yuan, no need for such ceremony. Thank you for your hard work."
Captain Yuan demurred and then waited quietly behind Wei Qingming with his men, awaiting her orders.
"I've never been able to figure out how Tang Xinghuai and I fell in so smoothly from above," I said. "The people from Prince Xuan's manor, or the Thousand Colors Palace, were dismantling the array, not breaking it. They must have closed the barrier after letting their people in. With no one operating it, who opened the array for us? Did someone really know I was going to fall and kindly wait there to let me through?"
Wei Qingming only said, "Senior Brother Bai has restored the array. Try it again."
I sent out a burst of True Essence as a signature. One must know that arrays recognize people based on True Essence signatures or tokens, like the Wei family jade plaque Wei Qingming gave me. In the darkness, the barrier flashed "poof" and then went dark, bouncing the True Essence signature back, indicating a refusal.
We flew directly above the barrier and simulated the fall from that night. Upon impact, the barrier remained as solid as a fortress. If Wei Qingming hadn't caught me in time, that impact would have broken my legs...
This woman actually had the leisure to joke: "Well, that completely rules out the possibility of you being a descendant of the Zhong family."
I punched her in frustration. "I'm a purebred demon, eighteen generations deep! Who would want a human as an ancestor?"
I was still immersed in confusion, but Wei Qingming didn't seem to care. She took out the array key, opened the restriction, and led me slowly down the steps. Captain Yuan and his men followed closely behind.
"Is this where you and Tang Xinghuai were separated?"
"Yes." I felt a bit dejected. "Even though he was really annoying, he did beg me not to leave him..."
Wei Qingming gently patted my head. "Miss Su did nothing wrong."
I secretly rubbed the tears from my eyes and asked, "Where was he found?"
Wei Qingming pulled a palm-sized piece of paper from her sleeve, which instantly transformed into a map. "After Miss Su entered, you went south along the main tomb path; very clever. Tang Xinghuai, however, blundered about and wandered into the west, eventually ending up here." She pointed to a spot marked in red.
Seeing me staring blankly at that spot, Wei Qingming asked softly, "Want to go see?"
The look in Madam Tang's eyes surfaced in my mind, and I nodded.
That place looked no different from anywhere else. Fluorescent powder marked several empty circles, indicating the locations of important evidence. There was nothing horrific, just an air of excessive rationality and coldness, as if a human life was worth nothing at all. If it hadn't happened to be linked to a major case, no one would have cared long ago.
Captain Yuan and several subordinates considerately stepped forward with glowstones to light the way for us.
"Presumably, you heard the results of the Ministry of Justice's investigation. Tang Xinghuai's fatal wound was a blade wound." As Wei Qingming spoke, fearing I might not fully understand, she physically demonstrated for me. "The perpetrator was taller than me. They didn't use magic, but personally lifted a large rock to crush him, which is why there are no magical residues on the rock. Tang Xinghuai didn't die from the impact because he used some kind of defensive artifact—that item is also missing, taken by the killer."
My gaze followed her voice to the top of her head. Wei Qingming's height of over seven feet four inches was considered above average even for a man. People taller than her were truly rare. Speaking of which, how did she grow so tall for a girl? Was it because the Wen and Wei families were all tall?
"That rock was only about fifty pounds; any man in the Smoke-Rising Realm or above could easily lift it. The real clue lies in the wound on Tang Xinghuai's abdomen." Wei Qingming narrowed her eyes, her words devoid of emotion, carrying only a faint, predatory excitement. "The murder weapon was a blade with barbs. The user was not skilled in martial arts; the first stab went wide, and it took a second to reach the mark. It was an amateur killer."
Why did I suddenly feel that she, the professional killer, was terrifying...
"There is one more thing missing from Tang Xinghuai's person," she continued. "And that is the token sufficient to open the barrier. In other words, he was already in contact with this group of tomb robbers."
So, the reason I was able to keep my little life and not be obliterated by the array was that I had to thank Brother Tang for grabbing onto me so tightly back then...
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