Unlike someone who had already gained the results they wanted, Xue Gui, who hurried to the Records Room of the Ministry of Justice, didn’t find what he was looking for.
The sky was already growing light. Xue Gui’s eyes were slightly red as he lifted his head from a mountain of files, his expression clearly irritated.
"How could there be nothing?"
The Ministry of Justice’s Records Room was similar to the one inside the Xuanqing Guard Commander’s Office. Although their focus differed, the messages accumulated over the years were just as varied and enormous. It even contained many secrets of cultivation, including the methods and analysis of major sects, as well as the main factions among loose cultivators.
But this time, Xue Gui hit a wall. He hadn’t slept all night, flipping through over a hundred records and reviewing almost every entry related to soul technique, but not one contained information about a bizarre method like "words refracted into the soul."
"What now?" He’d finally found a "thread," but discovered he couldn’t pull it. That was infuriating. He’d hoped to use the origin of this strange method to directly determine the identity of the culprit behind it, but for now, that was impossible. Perhaps if they brought in those reclusive experts from Fenghong Manor or the Xuanqing Guard, maybe they’d recognize the method?
Li Qing was also helping nearby, searching frantically; her eyes were even redder than Xue Gui’s, and she too couldn’t find a single clue among the records.
"Enough. Rest for a bit. We’ve gone through all the main content—no matter how many times you look, it’s unlikely you’ll find anything. Maybe our Ministry of Justice’s records are lacking in this regard. I wonder if the Xuanqing Guard or Fenghong Manor could be of help." Xue Gui made Li Qing stop.
"Should we go to the Xuanqing Guard Commander’s Office now?"
"No rush. Wait until the upper emissary arrives; otherwise we’ll be unable to get in."
"What about Fenghong Manor? Will they let us in?"
Xue Gui frowned. Indeed, the Xuanqing Guard was now acting as a cooperating department and should be willing to open part of their records for investigation. But Fenghong Manor was another matter. Their attitude had been very firm earlier—they claimed they wouldn’t get involved in the Ministry’s regular affairs. To Xue Gui, that clearly meant they wished to stay out of it. He suspected Fenghong Manor wouldn’t help with this either.
"Let’s first ask the Xuanqing Guard, put Fenghong Manor aside for now. Come on, let’s eat something before we get back to work." Xue Gui stood up, leading Li Qing out of the Records Room and down to the Ministry’s dining hall.
Since people served at the Ministry every hour of the day, the dining hall always had cooks available—which was superior to the Xuanqing Guard, where meals were only served three times daily and otherwise the kitchen remained closed.
Xue Gui didn’t eat much—about the same as an ordinary person—and favored light, vegetarian meals, though he wasn’t averse to alcohol and was a strong drinker. Li Qing, despite being a woman, ate far more than Xue Gui, especially after staying up all night. Breakfast found her already on her fifth meat bun, the kind weighing a tael each.
"By the way, where’s Shen Hao? Where did he go afterward?" Xue Gui suddenly remembered that there was another Shen involved in the case, and not seeing him around, he turned to ask Li Qing.
Li Qing had gone out several times earlier to hear reports from subordinates. She ate as she answered Xue Gui: "Not long after we left the jail, Shen also left. He didn’t return to the Xuanqing Guard station—instead, he went to Prince Qian’s Mansion. Around the end of the Hour of Hai, he returned to the Xuanqing Guard station."
"He went to Prince Qian’s Mansion? Is he following the thread left in that storybook? Well, that’s not a bad approach. But there are too many uncertainties. We might follow it, but our priority should still be finding the origin of that method. Understood?"
"Understood, sir! Later I’ll order someone to investigate the origins of that storybook, at the very least keep up with Shen—otherwise, he’ll cause trouble again." Li Qing still bore a grudge from her previous loss to the Xuanqing Guard and found Shen completely intolerable.
Xue Gui nodded silently in tacit approval, his expression behind the mask hidden from all.
Unexpectedly, just as Xue Gui finished eating and was leaving the dining hall, a governmental official came to report that a Deputy Thousand Households from the Xuanqing Guard named Shen was asking for him.
"Shen Hao? What’s he doing here so early?"
Though puzzled, Xue Gui couldn’t refuse to see him. He first returned to the Public Office, wrote a note for Li Qing, instructing her to bring it to the Xuanqing Guard and search the records, then stayed behind to meet Shen Hao and hear him out.
"Lord Xue."
"Lord Shen, please sit."
The two sat down, eyes meeting, no longer as sharp as yesterday, both seeming ready to speak.
It was Shen Hao who spoke first—after all, he was assisting in the investigation, and this case was unlike others; best to avoid direct credit, so when he had any progress he’d hurriedly report it to Xue Gui, letting Xue Gui remain at the forefront.
"Lord Xue, last night I went to Prince Qian’s Mansion. I asked people there about things dry Qian did while alive. I found some things interesting, so rushed here to tell you."
"Oh? What have you discovered, Lord Shen?"
"Prince Qian was a highly disciplined, self-regulating prince. He’d make his own bed, plan his daily schedule and tasks himself, balancing busy work and leisure... And reading storybooks and drinking Hundred Fruit Wine were regular parts of his routine—also his favorite pastimes.
I expect you already know that the protruding character in ’White River Evil Beast’ was the word ’curse.’ But just one word can’t possibly kill Prince Qian. Otherwise, anyone who’s read that book—including myself—should be dead, shouldn’t they?"
At this, Xue Gui sat upright, realizing Shen Hao had struck at the key point. Indeed, if Prince Qian had been killed by the ’curse’ character in the book, then why weren’t later readers dead? In fact, if not for Shen Hao’s reminder, they would never have even discovered this oddity in the book.
Shen Hao continued: "So I believe the ’curse’ character in ’White River Evil Beast’ wasn’t the whole skill; rather, it needs other characters to work together, or to form a complete magic technique. It just happened that when Prince Qian saw the ’curse’ character, the technique activated and killed him instantly."
"You mean the other books Prince Qian read were suspect too?!"
Shen Hao nodded. "Exactly. With a successive method that combines special magical means in the books, the culprit lured someone like Prince Qian—who had his routines and passions ingrained—into a trap, and then chose the perfect opportunity for the fatal strike."
"Where are those books?!" Xue Gui couldn’t sit still. He realized following Shen Hao’s line of inquiry actually could lead somewhere substantial.
"I already asked at Prince Qian’s Mansion yesterday. Storybooks are usually just for killing time and have little intrinsic value—few famous authors, unlike formal works, so their collectible value is extremely low. Unless Prince Qian especially liked one, he’d toss them all into the pile of old books after reading.
Unluckily, on the very day Prince Qian was killed—just half a day before his death—a scrap-book collector came to the Mansion and took away all those storybooks."