Chapter 1160 - 958: Dirty Work

The Gong Yuanzhi who had been dragged out of the cave stopped crying, stood up in front of Shi Chun and the others, his figure swayed, rapidly grew taller, clothes appeared on his body, and in the blink of an eye he turned into the big fellow Wu Jinliang.

He was actually Wu Jinliang himself; Gong Yuanzhi was precisely his transformation. As his cultivation increased and his comprehension under Xiao Sheng deepened, his Transformation Technique had made some progress.

It was just that the flaw remained: after using this technique once, he still found it difficult to use it a second time in a short span.

Yu Xuanbing, who once again witnessed his transformation ability, glanced back into the cave and asked, "With such a trick to fool them, will they really buy it?"

Wu Jinliang grinned and chuckled at that. They were far too familiar with the effect of this kind of method; it had never failed them.

So Shi Chun calmly summed up, "Whether they believe it or not isn't actually important. What's true is that torture is hard to endure. When it gets unbearable, most people only need a reason to lie to themselves so they'll talk, a reason to say the fault isn't theirs. At that point they usually don't care if it's true or false, even if they're suspicious in their hearts… I don't believe all four of them are iron-boned; one of them opening his mouth is enough!"

Yu Xuanbing and the others beside him all seemed lost in thought.

Wu Jinliang hitched up his sleeves and chuckled, "Sitting in charge of a region, there's a lot of business back home too. Let's make it quick. I'll go start the interrogation."

The result was just as Shi Chun had expected. That shout from Gong Yuanzhi completely shattered the psychological defenses of the four Demon Cultivators; some confessed before they'd even really been put to the torture.

The results of the interrogation held something that surprised Shi Chun. The four Demon Cultivators belonged to the Gui Cang Lineage of the Demon Path, but they did not know that Right Minister of Nanshan, Gong Xuan, Gong Yuanzhi's father. They only thought Gong Yuanzhi was an important operative the Demon Path had infiltrated into the Gong family to develop.

As for matters of the higher-ups of the Gui Cang Lineage, given their cultivation and their status within the Gui Cang Lineage of the Demon Path, they had actually never seen the Sect Leader's true face.

Shi Chun had also seen that Sect Leader, but likewise had never seen the true face, only knowing it was a woman.

According to the four Demon Cultivators, the Sect Leader was very mysterious and rarely showed herself. Most of the time, the affairs of the sect were presided over by a certain Teaching Elder. That Teaching Elder was also very mysterious, and they had never seen that person's true face either.

In short, most of the time they were connected vertically, layer upon layer; they generally did not make horizontal contact, and once they encountered risk, it was very easy to sever the trail.

And Gong Yuanzhi, honored as the Young Master of the Gui Cang Lineage, was the one running errands and handling matters for that Teaching Elder, which in turn allowed people like them, these High-level believers, to know him.

Even so, Shi Chun still confirmed from their testimonies that the Gong family was entangled with the Demon Path.

They confessed that the reason they were able to locate Shi Chun was because they used Yiling to pinpoint his position.

Of course, they did not know that the Gong family had sent Shi Chun an invitation.

But after the interrogation, Shi Chun thought things over carefully and took out that invitation to look it over again. In recent days, the only thing he had received from outsiders that was related to the Gong family was this invitation.

Yet no matter how he turned it over, he still couldn't see anything suspicious, nor did his Right Eye Superpower reveal anything.

Yu Xuanbing, at his side, stretched out his hand. "Let me have a look."

Shi Chun asked in surprise, "You know how?"

Yu Xuanbing replied calmly, "Back in my early years doing assassinations, I used this kind of spiritual insect to find targets as well."

Since he had experience, Shi Chun naturally handed the invitation over to him.

After Yu Xuanbing got the invitation, he opened it and looked it over. His fingertips repeatedly rubbed over the writing on the invitation for a while, then he suddenly lifted a finger and pointed. A wisp of red mist drifted from his fingertip, merged into the writing, and soon the red mist rapidly drew back into his fingertip.

This scene was only seen by Shi Chun, who had just now examined the invitation with his Right Eye Superpower; no one else noticed a thing.

Withdrawing his hand, Yu Xuanbing nodded and said, "That's right. The invitation has indeed been tampered with using Yiling. The ink used for this invitation was mixed with Yiling eggs. These insects are tiny and hard to see with the naked eye. Their greatest trait is that they can find spatial fissures to slip in and out of. This thing can survive in a Qiankun Bag for a short time but cannot stay long; if it does, it dies just the same. So after the eggs hatch, they will quickly seek out spatial fissures in the Qiankun Bag and slip out. The spiritual insect Bi You'er is fond of eating them and can sense and seek them out within a certain range, so people use this trait to track others. Yiling as a spiritual insect is hard to come by and not ordinarily precious; moreover, the eggs must be used within their hatching period. Anyone able to use this thing is far from simple."

As soon as he said that, Wu Jinliang laughed. "Senior, are you praising yourself? Did you spend this much blood back then when you were assassinating people?"

Yu Xuanbing brushed it off lightly with one sentence. "Picked it up by chance."

Shi Chun glanced at him twice. Seeing that he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't press the matter, and his gaze returned to the invitation. He said with some resentment, "No wonder Gong Yuanhao personally came to deliver this invitation and muddled my mind. This method really is impossible to guard against. Is there a way to break it?"

As he said this, a scene suddenly flashed through his mind; he recalled that earlier the Red-clothed Woman had also flipped through this invitation.

It was something he remembered unintentionally, one could also say it was a kind of instinctive reaction, yet he still didn't sense anything suspicious from it.

Yu Xuanbing, who was about to hand back the invitation, drew it back again and asked, "Who's got strong liquor on them? The stronger the better."

So Wu Jinliang fished out a bottle and handed it over. "It's very strong, used for mixing medicine. Will it do?"

Yu Xuanbing didn't take it. "Open it. A few drops are enough."

Wu Jinliang immediately opened the bottle to cooperate.

Yu Xuanbing cast a spell to draw out a few drops, distributing them evenly over some of the writing on the invitation. As the liquor gradually dried, the alcoholic scent wafting from the invitation faintly carried a sweet floral fragrance.

Only after this scent emerged did Yu Xuanbing explain, "Yiling fears strong liquor, and so do its eggs. Once trapped and killed by strong liquor, they'll release a faintly sweet floral scent, so strong liquor can break it."