Though Wei Maode spoke with a gentle tone, he now carried the distinct weight of official authority. "Rise. Speak slowly."
Xu Xingze performed a kowtow but remained on his knees, his voice thick with resentment. "Jiang Dongxing used forbidden drugs to manipulate the actors under his command. It was this that drove Meng Tingyun into a madness for which there is no cure. Jiang Dongxing intended to sell her as a concubine to a wealthy family while her fame was still intact. Tingyun refused to the death, and that led to... to the calamity of that night..."
It was as if years of pent-up bitterness had finally found an outlet; Xu Xingze spoke on and on with burning hatred. He described how Jiang Dongxing violated the young men and women apprenticed to him, and how he shuffled them between the manors of the nobility to serve as playthings. Perhaps considering my presence as a young woman, Wei Maode cut him off.
"Master Xu," Wei Maode asked, "you claim the tragedy of that night arose from the grudge between Jiang and Meng. Is this your speculation, or do you have evidence?"
"Evidence?" Xu Xingze faltered. "I... I have none... but Your Lordship might send men to search Tingyun’s room. There must be traces of those drugs... and in Jiang Dongxing’s room as well..."
Wei Maode nodded, his expression remaining unchanged. I felt a pang of pity as I listened. These performers were likely quite sheltered; they acted on impulse without any sense of order. Even if drugs were found, how would that prove Boss Jiang intended to take Meng Tingyun’s life or that he had orchestrated the murders that night?
Xu Xingze kowtowed once more before rising unsteadily. He looked up and saw Wei Qingming sitting nearby, her expression showing a hint of thin-veiled anger following his testimony. Their eyes met, and Wei Qingming’s gaze softened with concern. It was only then that Xu Xingze noticed the bloody scratches on her face.
"Young Master Wei, your face..."
Wei Qingming said languidly, "It is because of you."
Wei Maode suddenly spat out a mouthful of tea, coughing and laughing at the same time. "This official has choked. Time to end the shift, time to end the shift..."
Xu Xingze’s face turned a deep shade of crimson. Then, seeing me making punching and kicking gestures in Wei Qingming’s direction, he seemed to have a sudden realization. He bid them a hurried farewell and departed.
Once he was gone, Wei Maode was no longer in a hurry to leave. He took a kerchief to wipe the tea stains from his robes. "The charges Xu Xingze brought forward actually align with the suspect’s confession."
I asked quickly, "Lord Wei, what did the suspect say?"
"I am not in charge of this case; I have only glanced at the paperwork." Wei Maode smiled and pointed at Wei Qingming. "For the details, you must ask your 'cousin'."
Wei Qingming spoke. "He confessed that someone hired him to set a Soul-Snaring Array to control Meng Tingyun and force her into submission."
I said indignantly, "And for that, five innocent lives were sacrificed?"
"The Soul-Snaring Array is divided into three-element, six-element, and twelve-element variations. The old man who set the array is named Pan Yi. He is naturally lecherous. Since his patron was footing the bill, he discarded the three-element version in favor of the six-element array."
I grew calm instead. "Can I go see him? Perhaps..." Remembering Wei Maode was present, I swallowed the rest of my words.
Lord Wei stood up and stretched his legs. "Time to go home!" He clasped his hands behind his back and walked off with measured steps, humming a tune: "The guest has passed, the years grow long, carving a thousand stalks of jade..."
Only Wei Qingming and I remained in the room. I huffed and turned my face toward the shadows of the flowers cast by the setting sun. I heard Wei Qingming speak softly. "The death row cells are damp and cold. I am loath to let Miss Su go there."
"What does that matter?" I said. "The case is more important."
"This man is an expert in the ways of the Netherworld. His soul arts are superb; I fear his spiritual sense is also formidable," Wei Qingming said. "If you were to be harmed, the loss would outweigh the gain."
Her voice was tender and protective, devoid of any pretense. I blurted out, "Why were you flirting with Xu Xingze earlier? I thought you didn't like him?"
"Like Miss Su, I do not believe everything these people say." Wei Qingming turned the ring on her finger. "However, the truth will be revealed in a few days."
I was already accustomed to her cryptic way of speaking, yet this aura of calm—as if everything were within her grasp—was always inexplicably dashing. It made it hard to look away. Noticing my stare, Wei Qingming looked up and smiled. "If you wish to go, you may. Just do not use the Dream-Inducing Technique."
"Fine." I was still worried, so I cautioned her, "Then you must not use the Soul-Searching Technique on your own. Forbidden arts are forbidden for a reason. If you can avoid it, don't use it." It wasn't a moral lecture about ethics; rather, Soul-Searching involved forcibly merging another's soul with one's own, which could shock the mind. Overuse would, at best, deepen one's malevolence, and at worst, lead to insanity. I wasn't sure if the person who taught Wei Qingming her half-baked illusions had explained this clearly.
"Yes," Wei Qingming smiled. "I will listen to Azhi."
The death row prison was not as terrifying as I had imagined; nearly half the cells were empty. As Wei Qingming led me by the hand, she said, "The current Emperor is merciful. There are few death row inmates. Unless the crime is heinous and the person utterly depraved, he prefers not to kill, commuting sentences to exile and hard labor instead. This helps bolster the border guards and reclaim wasteland."
"Is that so!" I smiled. "When you were in Qingzhou, did you often deal with the military?"
"Sometimes," she replied. "My first mission for the Temple was to escort a group of serious offenders to Hanzhou for military service."
This was exciting. I urged her to tell me more. She continued, "There weren't many complications, except... we encountered a small band of bandits in Adu County. It happened that the County Magistrate wanted to rid the area of that scourge. At the time, Di Kuan was the garrison commander of Adu County. I set an array and did him a favor."
"Di Kuan? The General Di who was one of the primary heroes of the recent victory?"
"Mhm." Wei Qingming smiled. "He was originally in the army, suffering for over a decade as a penal laborer. Because there were no wars for many years, his talents went unnoticed. Sometimes, all a person lacks is an opportunity or two."
I listened in silence. Thinking back, she was only fourteen then, having just completed her training, yet she could turn such an ordinary task into something extraordinary...
As we spoke, we reached the innermost section. Here, there was a guard every five paces, and security was tight; this area was reserved for prisoners involved in major cases personally ordered for investigation by the Emperor. Wei Qingming performed a dizzyingly complex hand seal, and the heavy black steel doors groaned open. She had Yangyang come out to place a golden protective shield around me and insisted I wear a veiled hat to completely cover everything from my neck up before leading me inside.
The old man named Pan Yi had been pinned through his vital points by over a dozen chains shimmering with golden runes. After several days of torture, both his legs were broken, and not a single bone in the rest of his body remained intact. He seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, but he opened his eyes at the sound of our approach. Seeing Wei Qingming, he let out a greasy, vile smirk that made my skin crawl.
I cast a spell to investigate him, then whispered to Wei Qingming, "He really is troublesome! His spiritual sense isn't something I can easily manipulate. But... something is a bit strange. Let me look again." In truth, this man’s cultivation was at the mid-stage of the Cloud-Swallowing Realm, a level above mine. If my Eldest Senior Brother from the Mist-Eating Realm were here, it would be a trifle, but I wasn't so foolish as to tell Wei Qingming that...
Wei Qingming nodded and said softly, "Be extremely careful."
The words "Spirit" and "Soul" are often used together, but in a person, they are not the same thing. "Spirit" refers to logic and memory, while "Soul" refers to sensation and emotion. The path of Illusion focuses on refining the "Spirit," influencing a person's thoughts and manipulating their memories. The "Soul" arts of the Netherworld focus on controlling sensations and emotions; thus, this man refined various types of resentment. Of course, to achieve the best results, Illusionists still inevitably influence sensations and emotions, but only as a secondary measure. In truth, "Spirit" and "Soul" are difficult to separate entirely. Therefore, one who cultivates Soul arts must also refine their spiritual sense, or they would lack the focus to control so many vengeful souls.
I used my soul power to gradually pressure him, trying to understand exactly what felt unnatural. Before coming here, Wei Qingming had briefly explained his background: a native of Zhaozhou with no living parents or relatives. Pan Yi had drifted to the capital and become a street peddler. For the past six months, he had purchased low-grade jade from shops—the kind used for cheap goods—and commissioned suburban carvers to make containers for women's rouge and powder. They were worthless but delicate-looking items, bought mostly by vain women of the lower classes. I truly couldn't fathom how someone with such a background could have refined such high-level Soul arts.
Suddenly, my spiritual sense brushed against a certain part of his soul. I felt a surge of counter-attacking force strike out at me. I gave a cold snort and performed a hand seal to sever the connection. Wei Qingming had already lunged forward, grabbing a handful of his filthy, matted hair and forcing his face upward.
"You seek death?" she said, her voice sharp and cold.
"Heh..." Pan Yi was blind in one eye, and the other was crusted with pus. "All the good women are taken by the likes of you... this old man wanted a taste too..." Before he could finish, three sharp golden blades pierced through the back of his head, straight through the root of his tongue, and out from between his lips. His guttural cry of agony was suppressed by a spell Wei Qingming cast; the pain was heart-piercing, yet he could not scream, forced to endure it entirely within his own body.
I instinctively closed my eyes. When I opened them again, Wei Qingming was standing in front of me, blocking the view of the twitching, struggling figure behind her. Her expression was a frigid cold I had never seen before. I knew that his attempt to strike at me had ignited a heavy fury within her. I reached out and stroked her shoulder to calm her down, speaking to divert her attention.
"Hehe, this trip was well worth it. Do you really think he's just a lowly peddler?"
Wei Qingming knit her brows, signaling for me to continue. I said, "The soul inside his body doesn't belong to Pan Yi. It belongs to... a departed soul that lost its physical form long ago."
"Who is it?"
I shook my head. "He seems to be a family servant surnamed Xu. Xu... Fuhai? I can only sense that this is the name he was called most often in his memories."
Wei Qingming nodded to show she understood. While I spoke, a cluster of flickering flames had been dancing in her palm. Once I finished, she struck out behind her without even looking. The fire instantly latched onto Pan Yi’s one remaining eye. The smell of charred flesh and hair filled the air.
"He should have been broken long ago," she said coldly. She took my hand and walked quickly out of the cell. The jailers on either side had never seen her truly enraged; they exchanged glances and drew their whips. It seemed Pan Yi would not have an easy night...
Though I had helped Wei Qingming find a clue, my heart felt somewhat heavy as we left the prison. Wei Qingming seemed to feel that letting me see her acting so brutally was unseemly. Just as she was about to apologize, I reached up and pressed my fingers to her lips.
"Since you said Southern Opera is beautiful, and I like it too, why don't we go see a few more shows when we have time?"
Wei Qingming looked at me for a moment before offering her usual smile. As she smiled, her lips moved slightly against my fingers; the soft sensation made me hurriedly withdraw my hand.
Then I heard her say, "Very well. How about we go watch the Yushan Troupe's rehearsals?"
"Great!" I counted on my fingers with a grin. "We can investigate Boss Jiang, look into Meng Tingyun, and maybe stir things up with Xu Xingze and Lin Xiaozhu..."
"There is no need..." She placed her hand on my waist and pulled me gently into her arms, whispering into my ear, "There is no need to trouble your mind so much for my sake."
I nuzzled against her shoulder and said with a smile, "But I like it... I like troubling my mind for you."
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
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摄魂阵 | Soul-Snaring Array | A dark array used to control or trap a person's soul.
三元、六元、十二元 | Three-element, six-element, twelve-element | Refers to the complexity and power levels of an array.
潘义 | Pan Yi | The prisoner and soul-manipulator suspect.
吞云境 | Cloud-Swallowing Realm | A stage of cultivation.
餐霞境 | Mist-Eating Realm | A higher stage of cultivation than Cloud-Swallowing.
神 | Spirit / Mind | Refers to the rational, cognitive, and memory-based aspect of the self.
魂 | Soul / Emotion | Refers to the sensory, emotional, and instinctual aspect of the self.
徐福海 | Xu Fuhai | The name of the soul currently inhabiting Pan Yi's body.
函州 | Hanzhou | A geographical location mentioned in Wei Qingming's past.
阿度县 | Adu County | A county within Hanzhou.
狄宽 | Di Kuan | A general who rose from the rank of a penal laborer.
