Chapter 73 The dust has finally settled, but suspicions are rising in the case
Outside the cellar, it was a mess.
Censor Qian was being dragged out of a pile of weeds by several guards from the Imperial Preceptor's Mansion. His face was bruised and purple, and his official hat was askew, but he was still stubbornly saying, "...Ahem, see! As soon as I arrived, the evildoers were terrified and burned themselves to death! This is all thanks to me..."
Chu Chu Xuanyi walked out of the cellar, covered in dirt, his face as black as the bottom of a pot. He glanced at Qian Rulong, who was boasting, and didn't bother to say a word, just gave him a sharp look.
Censor Qian swallowed the second half of his sentence in an instant and shut his mouth awkwardly.
Xiao Yu, holding Ah Jiu, followed closely behind. He didn't even glance at anyone else, simply walking straight to a clean stone staircase and sitting down. He carefully let Ah Jiu rest her head on his legs, then took off his outer robe and covered her small body with it. He looked down at Ah Jiu's tear-stained sleeping face, his eyes extremely complicated.
Allen Chu walked over, sat down beside him, took out a medicine bottle from his arms, poured out a pill and handed it to him: "Take it, it will suppress your old injury."
Xiao Yu took the pill and swallowed it without hesitation.
The two were silent for a long time. The only sounds around them were the crackling of the flames and the movement of the secret guards cleaning up the scene.
"The Lin family..." In the end, it was Chu Chu Xuanyi who spoke first, his voice a little hoarse, "That old monster said that Ah Jiu is the blood of the Lin family. Do you have any clues?"
Xiao Yu's eyes never left Ajiu's face. He was silent for a moment before speaking in a deep voice, "Ten years ago, a family was annihilated in the capital."
Chu Chu Xuanyi raised his eyebrows: "I have heard that it was the then Left Censor of the Censorate, the Lin family?"
"It was Lin Jianzhi," Xiao Yu said slowly. "Overnight, all 117 members of the Lin family, including masters and servants, were slaughtered. Not a single one survived. The files state that it was done by bandits seeking to rob them. But my father was in charge of the case, and he privately told me that there was something fishy going on."
"How do you say that?"
"There weren't any signs of a struggle at the scene. Everyone seemed to have died in their sleep. They had no external injuries, but had lost all their vitality, becoming mummified corpses. Furthermore, the Lin family was incredibly wealthy, yet none of the gold, silver, and jewelry in their warehouses had been touched." Xiao Yu's voice deepened. "This doesn't seem like a robbery, but more like... a premeditated blood sacrifice."
Allen Chu's heart sank suddenly.
Mummified corpses...blood sacrifice...
This method is so similar to the Withered Vine Sect!
"Back then, my father found out that Lin Jianzhi's wife came from a very mysterious tribe in the southwestern borderland. That tribe believed in a sacred tree and called themselves the 'Black Bone Tribe'..."
"The Black Bone Tribe!" Chu Chu Xuanyi cried out in amazement, "Isn't that the predecessor of the Withered Vine Sect?!"
"Yes." Xiao Yu nodded, "But the file ends here. Later, my father was transferred to the frontier, and the matter was left unresolved and became an unsolved case. I have always suspected that the Lin family was wiped out by the Withered Vine Cult. They seemed to be looking for something, or... someone."
The two fell silent again.
The answer is already obvious.
The person they are looking for is the bloodline of the Lin family that has been left behind.
A little girl who was picked up by an old charlatan at the foot of the mountain. She was born with the ability to see qi, was immune to all poisons, and had a unique bloodline.
Her name is Ajiu.
She was the only survivor of the family massacre ten years ago.
Xiao Yu reached out and gently brushed a stray strand of hair from Ah Jiu's cheek, his gesture unnaturally gentle. In his heart, an indescribable bitterness and overwhelming anger surged.
This little girl who only knew how to eat and sleep all day and would sweetly call him "Brother Xiongxiong" actually carried such a heavy blood feud.
"No, this poison... is too strong!"
Regent's Palace, inner chamber.
Chu Xuanyi frowned and released his fingers from Xiao Yu's wrist. His expression was even darker than the sky outside the window.
Xiao Yu half-leaned on the couch, his face pale and sickly, but his deep eyes remained as sharp as an eagle's. He glanced at his left arm, which was wrapped in thick gauze, and said in a steady voice, "Speak."
Chu Xuanyi paced a few steps impatiently. The usually elegant and refined Imperial Master now had a rare urge to scratch his head.
"Your Highness, the poison you've been poisoned with isn't just the venom of the Plague Swamp Giant Spider." Chu Xuanyi paused, his expression grave. "It's... mixed with something else. An extremely sinister and strange force, like a maggot clinging to your bones, clinging to your meridians. I used the Qingling Pill, but it can only suppress it temporarily, not eradicate it."
"The king is fine." Xiao Yu lowered his eyes, "It's just that the blood circulation is occasionally blocked."
"Occassional obstruction?" Chu Xuanyi nearly pulled his beard out. "Your Highness, please don't hold on! Just now, when you were suppressing the poison, the cold sweat on your forehead was enough to feed fish! As long as this evil energy is not eliminated, it will be like a seed planted in your body, which may... cough, in short, it is very troublesome!"
He didn't dare say something like "I might kill you at any time", but the meaning was conveyed.
"Ordinary detoxification methods are only temporary solutions, not the root cause." Chu Xuanyi took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. "I must find a way to control this evil energy and eliminate it from the root. I need to go back to the observatory and look up ancient books. Maybe I can find some records about the Wugut Tribe."
Xiao Yu hummed an "hmm" as an agreement. He closed his eyes and began to regulate his breathing, but the tingling and numbness in his arms remained with him.
…
Imperial Master's Mansion.
"ah--!"
With a short scream, Jiu suddenly sat up from the bed, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his big eyes filled with lingering fear.
She dreamed of a huge, dark, sticky tree with many, many, many scary things hanging on it. There was also a skinny old man who pointed at her with a pair of hands like dead branches and spoke incomprehensible words.
"Miss, are you awake? Did you have a nightmare?" The housekeeper who was guarding outside the door heard the voice, pushed the door open and asked with concern.
Ajiu stared at the housekeeper blankly for a while, then curled her lips and her eyes turned red.
"Wang...Butler Wang, I'm afraid..."
"Don't be afraid, young lady, you are very safe in the Imperial Master's Mansion." Steward Wang comforted her hurriedly and ordered the maid to bring her some soothing soup.
Ah Jiu shook her head. She threw back the quilt and was about to get out of bed, muttering, "Brother Xiong Xiong... I want to go see Brother Xiong Xiong..."
She didn't remember what happened in the cellar very clearly, she only vaguely remembered that the fierce brother seemed to be injured in order to protect her.
"Oh my little ancestor!" Butler Wang stopped her, "His Royal Highness the Regent is being looked after by the Imperial Master and the Imperial Physician. You just woke up and are still weak. You can't run around!"
"No!" Ah Jiu's stubborn temper came up. "I want to go! His flowers...his flowers must be in bad condition! I want to go and see!"
Whether it was a flower or not, Housekeeper Wang was overwhelmed, but seeing Ah Jiu's "I'll cry if you don't let me go" attitude, he was really helpless. This little ancestor was a favorite of the Imperial Master and the Regent, so he couldn't hit or scold her, he could only coax her.
After a lot of chaos, Ajiu finally got on the carriage to the Regent's Palace as he wished.
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