Su Rong and Ye Guixue returned to the foot of Yingzui Cliff with their men. The whole cliff was quiet, and the hidden guards she had left behind reported that no one had come to the cliff and there was no sign of activity after they left.
Su Rong nodded and, together with Ye Guixue, approached the entrance of the mechanical device where the monks had been moving the boxes.
Su Rong considered herself adept at breaking mechanisms; Ye Guixue was also familiar with the process. Even though Fen Ling was not there, Su Rong and Ye Guixue were easily able to open the mechanism together.
Upon opening the mechanism, they saw a cave that had been carved out of a mountain. The cave was bright, not at all dark. Night pearls were embedded in the walls at intervals of ten steps. The ground was level and could accommodate two or three people walking side by side.
Su Rong and Ye Guixue moved forward side by side. After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, they came to a very spacious area, about the size of two rooms; on the ground were more than a dozen boxes. There seemed to be no path beyond this point; only stone walls. It seemed they had reached the end of the road.
Su Rong and Ye Guixue exchanged a glance. Ye Guixue turned around and ordered Yin Yue, who had been following half a step behind him, "Open all these boxes."
Yin Yue stepped forward. There was no lock on the boxes, so he easily opened one. What he saw inside was not gold or jewels, but blocks of mountain rock that had been ground to flatness. The rocks were all of identical size, similar to bricks.
Yin Yue remained silent, and opened all of the dozen or so boxes in one go. Each and every one of them contained the same rocks.
For a moment, neither Su Rong nor Ye Guixue spoke.
If the dozen boxes left here were all filled with rocks, then what had the monks loaded onto the cart and hauled away in the middle of the night? More rocks?
Su Rong did not doubt the truth of Yan Shen’s words. The fourth prince, Yan Shen, had been forced into a desperate situation. He needed the Crown Prince’s help and would not lie. She thought for a moment, then said to Yin Yue, "Smash one open to see what’s inside."
Without a word, Yin Yue used his hand to forcefully split one of the rocks into two. There was nothing inside.
"Smash one from each box." Su Rong ordered again.
Yin Yue then chose a rock from each box and smashed several pieces. The rocks were simply rocks. There was nothing hidden inside any of them.
Su Rong turned to Ye Guixue and suggested, "Perhaps these monks have laid a smokescreen here and the mechanism opening another secret tunnel is somewhere else. Let’s thoroughly search this place. If we don’t find anything, we can go out and search the entire area below Yingzui Cliff."
Ye Guixue nodded, "Okay."
Then, Su Rong and Ye Guixue, along with their hidden guards, meticulously searched the cave three times, but did not find any hidden mechanisms or secret tunnels. They then walked out of the cave and, using the cave as their center, checked the entirety of Yingzui Cliff.
Fen Ling and Yun Ze stopped fifty horse carts, causing panic among the monks.
Fen Ling didn’t bother to banter with them and, personally lifting the black cloth cover off one of the carts, he opened one of the boxes. To his surprise, the box was filled with neatly stacked rocks, just like bricks. He blinked, looking at the rocks and then at the monks with suspicion.
Yun Ze was also taken aback; his gaze shifted to the monks.
The monks turned pale. One of them, a manager, tentatively asked, "Who... who are you?"
Without answering, Fen Ling waved a hand at his followers and commanded, "Search all the boxes in each cart!"
The hidden guards went about this efficiently. They opened all the boxes in all fifty carts.
Also suspecting that something might be hidden inside the rocks, Fen Ling immediately broke a piece off. But it was just a rock with clear patterns; there was nothing hidden inside. He picked a few more pieces of rock from several other boxes and smashed them, but they too were just rocks with nothing inside.
Fen Ling was puzzled. Just what secret could these ordinary rocks hold? Were they really worth the monks’ effort to transport them from beneath Jingzui Cliff and secretly smuggle them back to the Buddha Temple late in the night?
Feeling that there was something odd going on, he discussed with Yun Ze, "First let’s herd these monks into Buddha Temple and detain them."
Yun Ze nodded in agreement.
Hence, Fen Ling and Yun Ze together led those monks and fifty carts into the Buddha Temple. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Meanwhile, inside the Buddha Temple, Rui’an King had been conducting an investigation throughout the night. The abbot had confessed that the monks were carrying the boulders for constructing the pedestal for the Buddha’s statue. Because the construction of a Buddha statue involves a strict requirement that the work cannot be exposed to sunlight, the monks are to labor after the sunset gong rings and no labor is allowed after the morning bell rings. That’s why he had sent the monks to work at night.
Rui’an King was skeptical but he continued to investigate from the beginning of Wang Su and Guang Zhen’s involvement in the case.
This investigation continued until daybreak.
As the temple gates opened, and Fen Ling and Yun Ze drove the monks and fifty carts into the temple, Rui’an King wasn’t done with his questioning. Seeing Fen Ling and Yun Ze leading people and monks into the temple, Rui’an King halted his work to ask them, "Master Feng, Young Master Yun Ze... are these monks captured by your men and seized?"
Fen Ling wished to nod, but shook his head instead, "There are fifty carts full of rocks. I don’t know what these monks are intending to do, skulking about in the middle of the night."
Rui’an King, upon hearing these words, started wondering if the abbot was really being truthful to him. He glanced at the abbot.
The abbot hurriedly reiterated the reason to Fen Ling and Yun Ze.
Fen Ling slightly squinted his eyes. "So, that’s what it is!" Instead of saying that they had misunderstood the situation, he gave a salute to Rui’an King. "Your Majesty, please continue your investigation. My sister and Second Young Master Ye are investigating on the back mountain. Even if you finish here, please don’t rush to leave. Let’s sit down together to discuss further after my sister and Second Young Master Ye are done."
Without waiting for Rui’an King’s response, he added, "So as to avoid us making so many trips to Buddha Temple that we practically wear out the threshold."
Rui’an King nodded in agreement, "Very true, Master Feng."
Fen Ling did not plan to cooperate with Su Rong. He felt that there was definitely something fishy about the Buddha Temple. Even if the reasons provided seem flawless, there was something peculiar about not building the Buddha’s pedestal in the morning but instead in this crucial period. Several monks from the Buddha Temple were involved in the case. As the abbot, did he still have the mood to continue the construction? Even if it was for chanting prayers to ensure safety, it should wait until the case was solved, not rustling in the middle of the night.
And so, Fen Ling was firmly convinced that something was amiss.
Yun Ze also felt that something was unusual.
While Rui’an King continued to conduct his investigation, Fen Ling and Yun Ze began to search the Buddha Temple.
Be it Zhou Gu, or Ye Guixue and Su Rong, or even Rui’an King who has visited twice, all of their inquiries were focused on the monks in the temple at most, they had only searched the residences and possessions of Wang Su and Guang Zhen. None of them had done a comprehensive search of the Buddha Temple.
When the abbot noticed the two men beginning to search everywhere, he couldn’t sit still. "Gentlemen, do you have a search warrant from His Majesty? Otherwise, this sacred Buddhist site should not be subjected to a casual search?"
Fen Ling did not care about this. "The sacred Buddhist site harbors filth and defilement. The misconduct of the monks is connected to a major case. Why should we need His Majesty’s personal arrest warrant? His Majesty is conducting the main investigation for this case. He’s right here and has the privilege to order a search. If the people have been interrogated, why not the location?"
The abbot, growing pale, turned to Rui’an King. "My lord, this... "
Rui’an King dismissed him with a wave of his hand, "Master Fen is right." He gazed at the abbot. From last night until now, he, too, had noticed that the abbot was visibly disturbed. He wasn’t sure what he was afraid of, but he was certain that the abbot and the Buddha Temple were problematic in some way.
The abbot opened his mouth, then closed it again, no longer offering resistance.
Fen Ling and Yun Ze began a thorough search of the Buddha Temple.
The sky was overcast that day. By the time it was almost dawn, there was still no sight of the sun. The sky was drab and the air permeated with coldness.
Su Rong had been healthy since childhood, and in the bottom of the Yingzui Cliff, the wind was blocked by the rocks, so she didn’t feel cold. Until the snowflakes began to drift down from the sky, landing on her forehead, ice-cold, she wiped them off with her hand, her fingers wet. As she looked up at the sky, sporadic snowflakes were falling down. She said to Ye Guixue, "The first snowfall of this winter couldn’t have come at a less opportune time. We must hurry."
If snow were to cover the entire mountain, it would be even more difficult to explore the secrets beneath this cliff.
Ye Guixue nodded, "We only have half a day. The snow seems like it will intensify. We must indeed act swiftly. If the area gets covered by snow, searching the area will require a large workforce."
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