Chapter 471 - 239: Who Says Men Are Inferior to Women?

Chapter 471: Chapter 239: Who Says Men Are Inferior to Women?

He touched his face. It was wet and salty. They were tears.

Zheng Xiu put down the stack of drafts in shock. "Wait, that’s not right," he exclaimed. "Why am I crying?!"

Something was wrong with the surprise and doubt in Zheng Xiu’s voice. Qing Shisan, puzzled, picked up the drafts and patiently began to read.

As he read, Qing Shisan found himself wiping away tears.

Finally, the two looked at each other. "What are we crying about?"

A moment later, a chill washed over them. Zheng Xiu retreated a few steps in fright, his eyes fixed warily on the drafts on the table.

Qing Shisan’s reaction was much the same.

Logically, there was no way the story in the manuscript could be so moving. It wasn’t so much that Zheng Xiu empathized with the story, but rather... that he had been contaminated by the plot.

HSSS...

After calming down, Qing Shisan’s expression grew solemn. His gaze, fixed on the stack of drafts, was murderous as he uttered a two-word assessment: "Highly unusual."

Zheng Xiu, still shaken, nodded in agreement. ’Looks like I can’t read any more of this guy’s stuff.’

Qing Shisan asked, "Prince, you suspect he’s...?"

Zheng Xiu gave a bitter smile. "These days, I see Zhu in everyone."

"My Prince, you’re ill."

Hearing this, Qing Shisan knew at once that the Prince was letting his paranoia get the better of him, and he sighed.

"A little caution isn’t a bad thing."

Qing Shisan understood and nodded firmly. "I’ll have our men keep an eye on him."

And so, the matter was settled between master and servant in just a few words.

A good while after Zheng Xiu and Qing Shisan left, the Scholar’s Attendant woke up with a groan. He found he had fallen asleep on the stone table in the courtyard. Startled, he glanced at the lock on the study door and was relieved to see that the doors and windows were securely shut.

Just as Zheng Xiu had told Qing Shisan, ever since the Night Lord’s disappearance, he had indeed grown paranoid, seeing Zhu’s face in every crowd. However, if his initial guess was correct, Zhu wouldn’t dare approach the Imperial City. That made it unlikely for Ximen Bei to be Zhu.

Whether or not Ximen Bei was an Innate Mystic, his Path of the Scholars meant his writing possessed a strange, lethal power. He could subtly manipulate the emotions of Zheng Xiu and Qing Shisan through mere words. In its own way, this was terrifying.

"You don’t need a knife to kill a man."

Later, when Zheng Xiu recounted the incident to Feng Bei, he sighed. "Scholars, Painters, Chess Masters, Officials, Physicians... some Paths of the upper echelons appear cultured, frail, and powerless. But in truth, they possess a different kind of terror. They don’t just kill the body, they crush the spirit. And in crushing the spirit, they can kill the body as well."

"Frail... powerless?" Upon hearing this, Feng Bei slowly raised a question. "But didn’t you destroy half a city with a single punch?"

Zheng Xiu didn’t answer, continuing his own train of thought. "Painters are the same, but with more versatility."

Feng Bei pressed on, "But you destroyed half a city with a single punch."

"MREOOOWWWRR MREOOWWWRR!"

’Idiot, idiot, idiot!’

The Orange Cat was beside itself with laughter, rolling on the ground as if clutching its stomach.

Zheng Xiu had a reasonable suspicion that on the night they dined with Wei Chen, the Orange Cat hadn’t been completely drunk. He remembered calling it a stupid cat, and now it was finding creative ways to get back at him.

In the early days after the Disaster Prevention Bureau’s official launch, the bureau was finally up and running. As its leader, Zheng Xiu hadn’t been idle. Aside from practicing his swordsmanship, teasing the cat, pestering Feng Bei, and soaking in poison to grind experience, Zheng Xiu read through all the secret records left behind by the former Ye Weiyang and the Secret Ministry.

Ye Weiyang hadn’t left much of use—just sealed case files of bizarre incidents from the past twenty years. Trying to find Zhu’s hiding place within these records was nothing short of wishful thinking.

The records accumulated by the Secret Ministry over the years, however, brought Zheng Xiu several pleasant surprises. Ever since the Great Emperor had given Yin Qingqing to him, she had gradually grown accustomed to her new role. Although her words remained cool and detached, small details revealed a genuine change in her attitude toward him.

She had voluntarily handed over the Secret Ministry’s archives to Zheng Xiu. They contained many legends from lost ancient scrolls, as well as local folklore and tales of the supernatural. In a secret scroll from ten years ago, Zheng Xiu found speculation regarding the "Source of a Mystic’s Ability."

The scroll theorized that the reason Mystics are born innately occupying a Path is that their very existence is a state between the Darkness and the Common World. This concept aligned perfectly with Zheng Xiu’s own conjectures about Humanoid Ghosts and Demons. Due to their unique nature, Mystics could harness something from the Darkness called "Filthy Qi," transforming it into all sorts of special abilities.

And all the practices of a Miracle Master were, in essence, an attempt to imitate a Mystic.

Limited by the knowledge and perspective of its era, the scroll’s speculation only scratched the surface, failing to delve into deeper theories. There were many similar scrolls, and Zheng Xiu spent a few days reading them all in one go. While he wouldn’t say the knowledge was profound, he had at least gained some new insights.

Ever since the "Sudden Death of the Ravens" incident, the skies above the Imperial City had been clear for some time. Recently, however, citizens had noticed a few dark-red crows circling overhead, occasionally perching on the flying eaves of pavilions.

Those were Wei Chen’s Blood Crows.

The Blood Crows served as Wei Chen’s eyes. Because the Crow Fosterer himself was incomplete, he couldn’t spread his Blood Crows across the land like the Night Lord once did. But keeping a few in the sky to act as lookouts was no problem at all.

Wei Chen made no secret of this. He told Zheng Xiu that twenty years ago, a defective "product"—a One-eyed Crow Raiser—had escaped and eventually made its way to the Great Desert. It was now hiding in the Incompleteness Tower’s main stronghold there, a place called the "Mirage."

And the Mirage was the signature technique of the Mountain Spirit, the member of the Incompleteness Tower’s Ten Greats most skilled in defensive arts. For years, Ye Weiyang had hunted the Incompleteness Tower, both openly and in secret. They had even traced the organization to the Great Desert, but were ultimately powerless against them—all thanks to the Mountain Spirit’s defensive technique, the Mirage.