Shen Hao questioned each of the Prison Guards and the Prison Director from the Celestial Prison of the Ministry of Justice in the office. There were eight in total, and ever since Prince Qian was imprisoned, it had always been these men keeping watch, though there were rotating shifts.
To be honest, their condition was much better than Shen Hao had expected. At first, he’d thought that after so long under lock and key, they’d either be dead or at least barely hanging on, but now, aside from some lethargy, there wasn’t much sign of injury on them. No wonder Xue Gui hadn’t even blinked an eye when previous discussions mentioned casualties.
It seems the Ministry of Justice was still somewhat soft-hearted towards these criminal prisoners.
Shen Hao didn’t immediately resort to cruel torture for questioning. After all, this was the Ministry of Justice, and many things required respecting their procedures. Xue Gui probably thought these men were still colleagues in the Ministry and, since they were implicated rather than directly guilty, refrained from using harsh methods. Nevertheless, there must have been plenty of drugs used, otherwise their spirits wouldn’t be so poor.
One round of questioning yielded answers basically consistent with what was recorded in the case files. Most of these questions had already been answered by these men at least ten times. Their hearts were anxious, but they didn’t dare refuse to reply.
Li Qing continued to sneer inwardly, thinking Shen Hao would have some clever tricks—yet, watching now, he appeared no different from anyone else. She had expected some method to crack the case, but nothing of the sort was in sight.
Compared to Li Qing’s indifference, Xue Gui clearly kept his composure, sitting silently to the side and watching Shen Hao at work, knowing that even if Shen Hao developed new ideas, they wouldn’t reveal themselves immediately.
Just when Xue Gui assumed all proper questions had been asked, Shen Hao didn’t end the interrogation but proceeded to ask increasingly odd questions.
"When does Prince Qian usually get up and go to sleep in the cell?"
"What times does Prince Qian take his meals?"
"Does Prince Qian always make his bed upon waking, tidying the blankets? Or are they left messy on the bed?"
"Generally, how long does it take Prince Qian to finish a pot of Hundred Fruit Wine?"
These were questions no one had asked before, and the kneeling guards became noticeably more alert, as they were no longer repeating answers but had to recollect details, bringing newfound brightness to their eyes.
Meanwhile, Li Qing wore a mocking smile, though she didn’t laugh aloud. To her, Shen Hao was just putting on a show—why bother with such trivial nonsense?
Yet Xue Gui gave Shen Hao a deep look and remained quietly seated.
Shen Hao’s expression did not change. Once the guards finished answering, he nodded and signaled the Ministry of Justice personnel to escort the suspects back to their cell.
"Well, Lord Shen, seems you’ve gained something?"
Shen Hao nodded and smiled, "I have, indeed. However, it’s not certain yet. I’ll need to question those in Prince Qian’s Mansion responsible for his daily affairs."
Xue Gui had no patience to wait for Shen Hao to sort matters out before reporting conditions to him, so he said with a deep voice, "Lord Shen, as discussed earlier, this investigation is led by our Ministry of Justice Major Case Department, with Xuanqing Guard as auxiliary. So? Have you discovered something and intend to keep it secret?"
Shen Hao didn’t actually intend to conceal anything—in fact, he hadn’t spoken earlier simply because he lacked corroborating evidence. Now that Xue Gui pressed him, he could no longer keep quiet.
"Lord Xue, have you examined that book closely?"
"Yes, it tells a story about a Fierce Beast on Bai River; the plot is fairly engaging. But I saw no issues with it. What is it, Lord Shen? Do you sense something’s amiss?"
"Yes, I do. On page nineteen of that book, the text seems to cause a subtle sting in the soul—very faint. I wonder if Lord Xue noticed it."
"Hmm? Is that so?!" Xue Gui was certain Shen Hao wouldn’t joke about this kind of matter, but still found it hard to believe and was extremely surprised. Could the long-sought clue be right before their eyes, simply overlooked all this time?
Without waiting for Shen Hao to say more, Xue Gui turned and left the office, heading straight to Prince Qian’s cell, picked up the book on the desk, and flipped to page nineteen. Reading the first three lines, he recalled that this page formed a transitional Chapter with nothing particularly notable. When he’d first read it, he hadn’t paid much attention, skimming and turning the page.
Now, with Shen Hao’s words in mind, Xue Gui examined the page carefully, word by word, but still detected nothing unusual.
Could Shen Hao be lying?
He shook his head—no, Shen Hao wouldn’t trivialize matters like this. So he started the page again from the beginning. When Xue Gui reached his fifth pass, his eyes suddenly caught on a particular character and a different sensation struck him.
It was the character for "curse."
The exact text in the book was: "Why are you so annoyingly talkative? Rambling on like chanting a curse, driving people mad."
This seemingly ordinary sentence had passed Xue Gui’s eyes several times before, yet now, that "curse" character was like a thorn, making his heart suddenly jolt, and a flicker of soul-piercing pain flashed by.
Very faint, very faint—even if Xue Gui’s mind hadn’t been highly attentive, aided by Shen Hao’s prior reminder, he might never have noticed this nearly imperceptible "sting." Furthermore, after the initial detection, it was hard to sense again; unless one concentrated fully, the odd sensation could easily be missed.
How to describe it? Like trying to catch an eel in water.
It’s just a storybook; normally, one would simply browse through a few pages. Xue Gui’s careful perusal was already treating this as high-priority evidence. Reading it repeatedly five or six times as just now would normally never happen.
"No wonder it was never noticed before. This is the true case of ’darkness beneath the lamp.’"
Turning his thoughts, Xue Gui became curious how Shen Hao managed to detect the issue with the book so easily. Even if Shen Hao’s Cultivation had improved, could it surpass that of the previous Captain from the Xuanqing Guard? Why hadn’t others noticed, but Shen Hao did?
No, Shen Hao didn’t discover it instantly—he too seemed to have tried several times?
Reflecting on Shen Hao’s odd behavior in the cell earlier, it all seemed to make sense now. Additionally, if the "curse" character triggered soul-pain, does it mean their assessment of Prince Qian’s cause of death was correct? Prince Qian died from some Soul Technique?
At this realization, Xue Gui couldn’t help but feel invigorated. It was truly a case of ’light at the end of the tunnel’—he hadn’t expected Shen Hao to really find the thread!
"Let’s go to the Government Office Document Library!" Xue Gui put down the book and called out to Li Qing to leave the prison. Before departing, he also ordered the guards to increase security in the special detention area—even stricter, with entry forbidden unless granted by warrant.