"Taken away?!" Xue Gui’s body suddenly lurched forward, his voice even changing pitch.
"Yes, it was taken away. Since the timing was so precise, it’s almost certain it was premeditated. The purpose was to cover up the strangeness in those books." Shen Hao spoke unhurriedly: "But my luck wasn’t bad, because Prince Qian wasn’t the only one in his mansion who enjoyed reading storybooks. There were two servants responsible for chores who liked them as well, so some of the recent books Prince Qian read were intercepted by them and weren’t sold off."
As he spoke, Shen Hao flipped his hand, took a book from his Storage Bag, and placed it in front of Xue Gui, then continued: "In total, four books were intercepted by the two errand servants. Three of them were fine, only this one is different. Lord Xue, you may turn directly to page seventeen."
Indeed, all of this truly relied on luck. Pang Ban saw this clearly—he often said Shen Hao was a person with fortune, and fortune is something invisible and intangible but it plays an extremely important role in the world, one that can’t be ignored. Just like this time, if Shen Hao hadn’t been lucky, the clue he managed to pull out before would have been lost again.
Xue Gui hurriedly took the book from the table; first he checked the cover. Its style matched that of the previous "White River Evil Beast", and the stamp from the Book Workshop in the bottom corner was the same, showing it came from the same place.
The book title: "Profound Light Sword". Just by the name, one could tell this was the story of a Sword Cultivator.
Xue Gui usually didn’t read any books outside of cultivation, and had zero interest in storybooks. His daily life itself could have been written into a storybook. Yet now, he was very interested in this "Profound Light Sword".
Following Shen Hao’s suggestion, he turned to page seventeen and read it through a couple of times without spotting anything strange or suspicious, just as before. But after the last experience, Xue Gui didn’t panic. He patiently read, word by word, again and again, and on the seventh read, he finally noticed something amiss.
The original words in the book: "Look at that man, with just a simple set of sword techniques, he can look like he’s lost his soul. Truly laughable."
Again, only one character in this sentence was strange, like a thorn stabbing Xue Gui’s soul.
The word "soul".
Shen Hao had been watching Xue Gui’s actions from the side. He saw the other had indeed gone over it many times before spotting the clue, which matched Shen Hao’s earlier assumption. Others did not have a Black Beast Tattoo as a warning; relying only on their eyes and normal perception, it was very difficult to discover the hidden move in the book, which explained why this clue had been overlooked before.
But Shen Hao thought to himself: Looks like a soul stained with both the "Curse" and "Soul" marks also won’t kill, nor produce any sensation. Which means that among the books that were taken away, there must be more strange words that led to Prince Qian’s death.
Xue Gui’s eyes shone with excitement, not realizing that he had just become Shen Hao’s test subject and walked once through the Ghost Gate without even knowing it.
"If there’s one, there must be another, so there are definitely more such strange storybooks. Based on this, I believe Prince Qian died like this."
The suspicion was there before, but only when the second strange storybook appeared did Shen Hao gain some confidence. This counted as finding hard evidence.
Xue Gui was an expert at handling cases. Though he hadn’t found the right direction before, Shen Hao’s analysis made him understand his meaning now.
"You mean to say this method accumulates in a person’s soul bit by bit and only erupts once a certain point is reached?" After asking, as he mulled it over, a chill flickered in his eyes before he glanced toward Shen Hao, hostility glinting momentarily before he covered it well.
Xue Gui now realized: if Prince Qian had died from the accumulation and ultimate eruption of such strange tricks in one book after another, then he himself had just taken the same risk. And sitting across from him, Shen Hao had obviously known but never warned him, even, if he guessed right, using him as an experiment.
The feeling of walking blindfolded on the edge of a cliff was deeply unpleasant. Xue Gui’s impression of Shen Hao shifted from previous "dislike" to outright "aversion". Someone who didn’t value anyone else’s life was, indeed, detestable.
Is Shen Hao a good person? Of course not. He had always defined himself as: a villain with boundaries.
Would a villain care what unrelated people thought of him? Of course not. Although Xue Gui had acted very restrained before Shen Hao, always handling things by the book, the way he ran straight out of the prison before proved that this Major Case Department Steward never truly saw Shen Hao as important. This could also be seen in his deputy Li Qing’s attitude.
Xue Gui still brooded over the previous Qin Family case. With that being the case, Shen Hao would never treat him as an outsider or one of his own; "holding no goodwill" summed it up well.
So, would Shen Hao care if Xue Gui lived or died? Not at all. If luck failed and Xue Gui really was harmed, at worst, he’d just write up a situation report and pin a "died in the line of duty" label on Xue Gui.
Since it was a matter of soul, and Xue Gui’s cultivation wasn’t bad, by calming himself he could barely find the "stain" on his soul and then vibrate the soul to wash it away. It wasn’t difficult. The only thing was, Xue Gui probably wouldn’t let this go easily.
They’d agreed on joint investigation, so after informing Xue Gui, the case truly began, and subsequent investigation depended on how capable the Ministry of Justice was. Shen Hao grinned and excused himself, heading back to Jingxi Town Governor’s Office. It was just the right time for Upper Emissary, so he went to the Public Office to find Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng sat down, watching Shen Hao, who attended to him eagerly by making tea. He beamed, "Here to see me so early—something tricky in the case? Tell me, let’s see if I can help you out."
In Jiang Cheng’s view, it had only been a day; even with Shen Hao’s skill, there was no way the case could advance significantly. If Shen Hao was seeking him out, it must be because he hit some trouble.
But Shen Hao replied, "Thank you for your kindness, sir. No trouble on my end. Mainly, there’s some progress in the case, so I came to report to you. Also, I’d like to request an official writ to check some things in the Commander’s Office Library and Document Library."
"What? You’ve got progress already?" Jiang Cheng’s hand holding the tea cup trembled. He was shocked. So many experts had searched for so long without the slightest advancement, and Shen Hao had a breakthrough as soon as he returned?
"Yes, sir. The case was just stuck at the start. I was lucky and found a ’loose thread’ as soon as I came back, and following it, actually found something, so you can say there’s progress. Before coming here, I had already explained things to Xue Gui of the Ministry of Justice Major Case Department. How it goes next depends on their skills."