Chapter 67: The Culprit

Chapter 67: Chapter 67: The Culprit

There had been several people they had considered suspicious throughout their investigation. The matchmaker, the people from the temple, even the city lord—all of them had been possible suspects at one point.

Although they had already suspected her before they even came here, Sui Sui still found it unbelievable when he saw the culprit’s face.

"It really is you..." Sui Sui blurted out, staring at the figure in front of him.

It was indeed Shi Yan, Shan Shuqin’s personal handmaiden.

Shi Yan looked toward Sui Sui. The gentle and kind expression she had always worn was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a devious grin tugged at the corners of her lips, while a bell rested casually in her hand.

She looked at the two of them with amusement, seemingly not the least bit concerned that her identity had been exposed.

"Oh? You suspected me all along?" she asked, her tone carrying a hint of curiosity. "I wonder what made you so certain. Would you be so kind as to fill me in?"

Sui Sui did not answer immediately. Instead, the question brought his thoughts back to the events of several days ago, when the people from the temple had just been captured.

Earlier before the revelation, while searching the temple, the group of four had discovered several documents concerning the victims in the room where the corpses and corpse oil were being kept. Those documents had ultimately provided the first clue that led them to the truth about Shi Yan.

"Look, they have these here as well," Sui Sui pointed out for Yizhou to see.

He picked up one of the documents and began looking through it. It was a booklet containing information on not only the recent victims, but also people who had disappeared over the past decade. There were far more records than they had expected.

Unlike the records they had obtained from the City Lord’s Mansion or the Government Registry Bureau, these records contained little information about the victims themselves. Instead, they mainly listed their names and birth charts, with each person further categorized according to their Yin or Yang affinity.

As Sui Sui continued reading, he gradually realized that refining corpse oil was not as simple as he had initially thought. According to the records written here, the process depended on whether the body was suitable for refinement.

Bodies with Yin affinity were easier to refine since they already have half of the attribute that was needed, while those with Yang affinity were much more difficult and required a more complicated refining process.

As Sui Sui continued turning the pages, he took note of the names listed in the booklet. Then, a familiar name suddenly caught his attention.

Shan Shuqin.

Her name was listed among the records, with her birth chart marked as Yang affinity. This immediately confirmed the suspicion that Sui Sui and Yizhou had formed earlier—that Shan Shuqin’s constitution was different from that of the other victims.

More importantly, her presence in these records proved that the temple was connected to the case.

Why else would they have recorded her birth chart if they had not been interested in her? plus she wasn’t dead yet, so why were her records here?

Sui Sui noticed a mark in the lower-right corner of her record. Unlike the other entries, hers had been marked incomplete. Given that Shan Shuqin had survived the attack, it was likely that the record had never been finished.

Sui Sui continued turning the pages, but when he reached the next one, his fingers suddenly stopped, his gaze froze on the name written at the top.

Xu Yunzhi

Wasn’t this the name of the City Lord?

For a moment, Sui Sui thought he had read it incorrectly. He lowered his eyes and looked at the page again, carefully checking the characters to make sure there was no mistake.

It was indeed Xu Yunzhi.

"How could this be...?" A thought suddenly rose in Sui Sui’s mind.

The City Lord’s name should have had nothing to do with these records. Yet here it was, written among the very people whose birth charts had been collected by the temple. If they had gone as far as recording his information, then there was only one reasonable possibility.

Had Xu Yunzhi also been one of their targets?

Sui Sui quickly read through the details beneath his name. The more he read, the more his expression changed. By the time he reached the birth chart, the shock in his eyes had already turned into disbelief.

He immediately called out to Yizhou.

"Senior Brother, look at this." Sui Sui pointed to the page, his finger resting beneath the recorded birth chart.

Birthchart: Year of the Rabbit, 4th Lunar Month, 18th Lunar Day, Chen Hour, Yin Affinity.

He stared at the information for several seconds.

The birth chart was extraordinarily close to forming a Cauldron Yin Physique with three yin affinity in his birth chart. The previous victims at most had one or two Yin-Combination, However for this one, It was only one step away from reaching the same level as Sui Sui’s own constitution but not quite at the level of extreme Yin Physique yet.

Seeing this, Sui Sui suddenly recalled the first time he had met the City Lord. Xu Yunzhi had appeared weak and sickly back then. At the time, Sui Sui had assumed it was simply because he was exhausted from everything that had happened. But now, looking at his birth chart, another possibility occurred to him.

Perhaps the City Lord had always been physically weak because of his strong Yin affinity.

Sui Sui’s thoughts began to race.

If the temple had been collecting bodies based on their Yin affinities, then Xu Yunzhi’s unusually strong Yin-aligned birth chart made him far more valuable than an ordinary victim.

A thought suddenly flashed through Sui Sui’s mind.

"Could it be..." His fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the page, and his eyes narrowed as the possibility took shape in his mind. "The person the people behind this actually want isn’t Young Miss Shan, but the City Lord himself?"

Yizhou reached over and took the booklet from his hands. His eyes moved steadily across the records, taking in every detail. At first, there was little change in his expression, but as he continued reading, the faint ease in his gaze gradually disappeared, replaced by a quiet sharpness.

"It seems that may indeed be the case." Yizhou said as he closed the booklet halfway, his thumb resting against its worn edge as if he was thinking. "Do you remember the first time we came to the City Lord’s Manor? There was an incident involving a rampaging tamed spirit beast."

Sui Sui’s brows drew together as he searched his memory. "Yes. What about it?"

"The reason I stepped in to subdue it was because I sensed that the beast had been affected by a spell." Yizhou’s gaze lifted from the booklet, a cold glint passing through his eyes. "More specifically, it was a charm spell cast by a demon, so I wanted to investigate it more closely."

Sui Sui’s eyes flickered with realization.

He knew it. It was completely unlike Yizhou to suddenly have a good heart and rush to save someone. So that was the real reason he had stepped in.

"At the time, I wondered why someone would go to the trouble of casting such a spell on a tamed spirit beast." Yizhou’s fingers tapped lightly against the cover of the booklet as he spoke, each tap seeming to mark another piece falling into place.

Sui Sui’s thinking paused for a moment. Indeed, when the beast had gone on a rampage, the gates of the City Lord’s Manor had just happened to open. At the time, he had thought nothing of it. But now that Yizhou had brought it up, the timing suddenly seemed far too coincidental.

Yizhou’s gaze remained fixed on the records in his hands.

"If we look at it from this perspective, they may have deliberately caused the disturbance to create an opportunity to sneak into the manor." His fingers lightly traced the edge of the booklet. "And if that was their purpose, then there is something else we need to consider. Do you remember that among all the information we found, there was only one record missing?"

Sui Sui’s eyes flickered. "You mean Shan Shuqin’s record?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Sui Sui felt as if he had suddenly become enlightened and possibility suddenly surfaced in his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

"Could it be that they sneaked into the manor specifically to remove her information?" His words came faster as the pieces began falling into place. "By taking her record, they could prevent the cultivators from immediately discovering the truth. Everyone would naturally assume that Young Miss Shan was the intended target, while in reality..."

Sui Sui’s gaze slowly lifted. "They wanted to hide the fact that the real target was the City Lord."

"Exactly." Yizhou’s response was quiet, but there was a trace of certainty in his eyes. It was clear that Sui Sui had finally arrived at the same conclusion.

Yet another doubt immediately followed in Sui Sui’s mind. Sui Sui frowned slightly while asking "But if they were capable of sneaking into the manor, wouldn’t it have been easier for them to simply stay inside and take the City Lord directly?"

"It’s because they couldn’t." Yizhou’s gaze drifted toward the doorway, his expression becoming slightly more solemn.

"The City Lord’s Manor contains hidden formations left behind by powerful ancestors of the city. Those formations are particularly sensitive to demonic qi. The moment a demon attempted to reveal its presence or act recklessly inside the manor, the formations would immediately detect it, plus the City Lord Xu himself is still a genuine golden core cultivator even though he is not that strong physically."

He paused briefly before adding, "They could enter while concealing themselves in the chaos, but they couldn’t remain there for long without exposing themselves."

Sui Sui’s expression gradually turned into a look of understanding.

That explained everything.

The rampaging spirit beast had created the perfect distraction. The gates had opened, giving the demons an opportunity to slip inside. Once there, they had removed the record that could expose their true target before retreating before the manor’s formations could detect them.

What had initially seemed like a series of unrelated incidents was beginning to form a single, carefully arranged scheme.

"It seems we’ve finally connected all the details."