Chapter 622 - 399: Changle Street (Part 2)

Duan Rong silently listened to Zhu Cheng’s account without saying a word, simply walking a circle around the collapsed ruins.

Suddenly, Duan Rong bent down and picked up a piece of charred wood. Holding it in his hand for a moment, he tossed it aside and then picked up another piece.

Duan Rong pursed his lips, silently picking up and putting down pieces of broken walls and rubble in front of the collapsed ruins.

Zhu Cheng and Zhu Peng watched in a daze.

Zhu Peng said, "What is he rummaging around for?"

Zhu Cheng shook his head and said, "I don’t know."

Zhu Peng said, "Could there be clues under the ruins? Should we go help him move things?"

"That’s a good idea."

The two walked over, and Zhu Cheng said, "Lord Duan, have you found any clues? We can give you a hand."

Duan Rong looked up, clapped the black ash off his hands, and smiled, "No need! If you help, it might just make a mess."

"A mess?" The two couldn’t grasp what Duan Rong meant at that moment.

"Besides, you wouldn’t be able to tell!"

Zhu Cheng frowned slightly and asked in confusion, "What do you mean, Lord Duan, that we can’t see?"

"All things have a spirit. They can speak." Duan Rong smiled and said, "I plan to pick through all the debris of these ruins." He paused, looked up at the sun’s position, and continued, "I estimate it will take me till past midnight. You two can do as you please; no need to wait for me."

"Pick through all of it?!"

Zhu Cheng and Zhu Peng were both stunned, looking at Duan Rong as if he were a madman.

The two stood there for a while longer, watching Duan Rong pick up each piece of broken wall and stack it neatly at his feet.

The two then withdrew from the area and went to the lakeside.

Zhu Peng, who had just begun to develop a favorable view of Duan Rong, now had none left. He pouted towards the ruins where Duan Rong was busy and said, "Is that guy crazy?"

Zhu Cheng’s face was also looking a bit unpleasant. To him, picking through all the rubble in the ruins seemed like a complete waste of effort.

Zhu Peng said, "Did you hear what he just said? Did he say those broken tiles can talk? Isn’t that insane?"

"Enough! Keep your voice down!" Zhu Cheng glared at him.

Zhu Peng said, "Shall we close the case? If he keeps investigating like this, I doubt he’ll find anything."

Zhu Cheng sighed and said, "Let’s wait two more days. After all, he’s been transferred here by the ancestor; we need to account for that."

Zhu Peng said, "Then you work with him on this. I’m not coming again! I can’t stand his mysterious, ghost-busting antics any longer!"

Zhu Cheng said, "It’s just a matter of two or three days. Can’t you be a little patient? If he finds no clues in three days, we’ll tell him to close the case."

Their conversation by the lake was clearly "heard" by Duan Rong using Divine Sense Investigation, but he didn’t care and continued to bend over, methodically going through the broken walls and rubble.

As dusk descended and twilight fell, countless bats flitted low, catching insects in the air.

The soldiers stationed around the area, seeing that Duan Rong was still rummaging around, brought him a lantern.

Duan Rong hung the lantern on a nearby column and straightened his slightly stiff back.

By nightfall, he had only gotten through about half of it. It seemed he had been a bit optimistic in his original estimate and would likely have to pull an all-nighter to finish.

Duan Rong wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, then suddenly circulated his True Qi to lift half of a broken beam at his foot, before continuing to sift through the broken walls and rubble.

When dawn broke, Duan Rong finally plopped down onto some dirty stone steps next to the cool house, his face covered in black grime, and many specks of dust clinging to his eyelashes.

He sat there, catching his breath, then went to the lakeside to wash his face before heading out of Zhu Shizhong’s residence and into the street to eat something.

After staying up all night, he was very hungry.

After finishing his meal, Duan Rong returned to the inn, collapsed into a deep sleep, and didn’t wake up until noon when he lazily got up.

He rose, freshened up again, had lunch at the inn, and then sauntered over to a tea house by the street.

This time, he didn’t go to the second floor but sat down somewhere on the ground floor.

He was there to listen to storytelling!

On the ruins where the Minister of the Secretariat was struck down by lightning, he had absorbed the Artifact Spirit for a night. Though he had slept, those spirits were still not completely digested.

Duan Rong stayed in the tea house, sipping tea and listening attentively to the stories, waiting for the absorbed Artifact Spirits to be absorbed completely.

After about two hours, Duan Rong was thoroughly engrossed, but suddenly his expression changed. Most of the digested Artifact Spirits were comprised of useless information, but just then, an extremely important piece of information entered his mind.

The elder storyteller was at the climax of his tale, spittle flying, and the entire audience was silent as a tomb. But Duan Rong suddenly jumped up and rushed out of the tea house.

The moment Duan Rong sprang up, the elder storyteller almost choked on his words.

This was the part he was most proud of, the peak of his performance, and Duan Rong’s sudden exit seemed to him like a public slap in the face.

He always believed that when he reached this point in his tale, even if someone’s father had just died, they would stay until he finished.

Since he began performing, no one had ever left during this part of his story.

But because he didn’t get a good look at Duan Rong’s face, he couldn’t later inquire what exactly led him to leave at that precise moment.

Without a convincing reason, this scene would become a thorn in his heart, disturbing his sleep nightly.

He would sorely doubt his own storytelling prowess. How could anyone possibly leave at this point?

Duan Rong naturally didn’t know that his abrupt departure had so wounded the sensitive and proud heart of this esteemed storyteller.

If he had known, he surely would have spat before leaving.

Duan Rong exited the teahouse and made his way along Changle Street, heading straight to the residence of Minister Zhu Shizhong, Lord Zhu.

When Duan Rong reached the entrance, the Heavy Armored Cavalry guards stopped him.

Duan Rong immediately presented the Taiyi Order and explained that he had been there the previous day with Zhu, the Temple Chief of the Ministry of Justice, and that he was an Outer Disciple sent by the sect to assist with the case.

Only then did the gatekeeper allow him entry.

Upon entering the residence, Duan Rong immediately rushed to the pile of collapsed ruins by the lake.

Standing by the ruins, he suddenly unleashed his Divine Sense.

Countless tendrils of Divine Sense, as intricate as a web, searched through the collapsed ruins.

Aligning the information in his mind, Duan Rong soon made a discovery.

At the point where his Divine Sense alighted upon something, his figure flickered, and he seemed to glide ghostlike into a corner, rummaging through a pile of broken debris.

Duan Rong pulled out an object from the heap.

It seemed to be a section of wood from a roof beam, but in its middle was a deep square groove.

Duan Rong knew this was where water from a waterwheel would be channeled to flow over the roof, through the rooftop gutter.

The deep groove had a thin wooden handle protruding from the side.

The groove was deep, with a shadow at the bottom, and the wooden handle was very slender, hardly thicker than a toothpick, making it difficult to spot.

Not far from the wooden handle, a small round hole could be seen at the top of the groove, with a faintly visible blackish sharp object protruding from it.

When Duan Rong touched it with his hand, it seemed to be a needle tip.

Under Divine Sense Investigation, the needle tip and the wooden handle were connected.

Holding the object, Duan Rong sat on a nearby stone step, lost in thought.

After a long time, his eyes suddenly shone.

"Someone deliberately guided a lightning strike to kill Lord Zhu!"

Disguising a murder as an act of nature!

What a cunning method! What intricate planning!

Duan Rong immediately stood up and approached the Heavy Armor Guard stationed not far away. Staring at the guard, he said in a deep voice, "Please make a trip to the Ministry of Justice to fetch Lords Zhu Cheng and Zhu Peng. Tell them Duan Rong has urgent matters to discuss with them."

The guard just stared blankly at Duan Rong, seemingly without any intention of moving.

Duan Rong suddenly raised the Taiyi Order, his face grim as he shouted, "If anything goes wrong, I’ll have your head!"

At that moment, an aura seemed to explode from him.

The guard shivered unexpectedly, his face twitched, and he immediately grabbed his weapon and dashed out.