Xu Qing sat there quietly. Eventually, he looked up, his heart and mind trembling as wave after wave of shock crashed into them.
“The lieutenant governor....” he murmured.
Xu Qing hadn’t dealt much with the lieutenant governor, but he had always respected him.
The reason for that was his skill in alchemy, which reminded Xu Qing of Grandmaster Bai and the grand elder from the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He remembered how kind the lieutenant governor had been when he first arrived in the county capital, and also what Honor Guard Sun had said about the ‘virtuous achievement’ of inventing the pallid bolus. Once the war started, Xu Qing had noticed repeatedly how exhausted the lieutenant governor seemed. Back when dealing with the Demi-Immortals, the lieutenant governor had almost immediately picked up on Xu Qing’s ruse, and had played along. True, the lieutenant governor had quickly fit in to the new arrangement when Seventh Prince arrived, but that alone didn’t mean much.
Later, the lieutenant governor was responsible for many things that benefited Sea-Sealing County. He worked with the deputy palace lords for the three palaces to successfully submit many official requests to Seventh Prince. After Xu Qing had just returned, it was the lieutenant governor who dealt with the cabal of nonhumans who had protested Xu Qing’s conscription orders.
After Seventh Prince took over and sought to make changes to the Swordsage Palace’s rules and reward systems, it was the lieutenant governor who negotiated with Seventh Prince on the swordsage’s behalf.
The lieutenant governor’s influence was present in so many things.
Palace Lord Kong had trusted him with the safekeeping of the capital city. Even if the palace lord had suspected him, he still had a lot of trust in him. During the war, the lieutenant governor never procrastinated in anything. He worked diligently to serve the front lines, earned the confidence of the mortals, and became a pillar of stability. The only reason the front lines had been able to hold strong as long as they did was because of the lieutenant governor’s hard work.
He really had accomplished many virtuous achievements. He really was someone who kept the interior safe during a time of war. He really was someone who fought for the rights of Sea-Sealing County even after Seventh Prince came and took over.
Given all of that, Xu Qing had a hard time believing that he could be some sort of villainous mastermind. Previously, there had never been a single thing to lead him to suspect the lieutenant governor. He certainly hadn’t come across any evidence implicating him.
As Xu Qing sat there, he suppressed his shock. This was too important of a matter, and he couldn’t do anything rash. Therefore, he took this new clue and tried to fit it in with everything he had uncovered up to this point.
He thought back to the information in Palace Lord Kong’s jade slip, and also what he had uncovered at Mount Daybreak.
According to Classified Dossier 19, the empty wish box once contained a lightmost fatehavoc pill. Palace Lord Kong was aware of that, which was why he was certain the governor died because of that pill. After all, there are few things that could kill someone as strong as the governor in such a quiet, nondramatic way. The only exception would be someone at least as strong as a Smoldering God. But if someone like that were involved, what would be the point of the war? All those factors indicate that a lightmost fatehavoc pill had to be the murder weapon.
Xu Qing was mentally laying out all the clues in the most logical fashion possible.
However, to use a lightmost fatehavoc pill, one would first need a stream of daybreak light. That was what Palace Lord Kong wanted me to investigate. That, and the method by which the poison was administered.
Back when Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong had discussed this matter, they hadn’t even been able to come up with a theory about how the poison was administered. How could the governor, who was blessed with destiny aura and was halfway into the Smoldering God level, not notice someone trying to poison him?
I got to the bottom of the daybreak light. I proved that there was some daybreak light whose existence didn’t make it into the official records. And that made it seem even more likely that we were dealing with a lightmost fatehavoc pill. As for how it was administered....
Xu Qing looked down at the powder that was all that remained of the pallid bolus he had just crushed. Then he took the remaining pallid bolus out of the pill bottle. He had previously studied this pill. Back then, he had come to the conclusion that it was just a more effective version of the white bolus, and that its function was to extrude mutagen. The concoction method for the pill was unique, such that despite Xu Qing’s skill in the dao of alchemy, he couldn’t figure it out by merely studying the pill.
What was more, the pill contained many medicinal plants that didn’t seem to be well-matched. They only seemed to become effective after having been transformed in some way. That actually conformed to the lieutenant governor’s unique dao of medicine. He would transform medicinal plants by altering their environment.
Xu Qing’s eyes hardened as he thought about that. It was as if a huge hand were clearing the fog in his mind. He suddenly recalled the first time he had seen the lieutenant governor, which was when he taught a lesson to all the new swordsages.
“If you want to affect a medicinal plant, you can’t be bold and decisive. You don’t need to make yin-yang adjustments to change it. You just water it quietly.
“If you gradually change its environment, as well its diet, you can exert a huge influence on the plant without it even realizing it.
“To put it plainly, you’re not actually transforming the plant. It’s using its own power to transform itself. All you’re doing is giving it the proper environment in which to change.”
That was what the lieutenant governor had said in his lecture. Upon hearing those words, Xu Qing had felt deep admiration. He couldn’t help but respect the lieutenant governor after learning that he had come up with such a useful method of alchemy. After all, it was that method which led to the transformation of the white bolus into the pallid bolus, which had been such a blessing for people in the capital.
But now that Xu Qing thought back to that lecture, it made him feel like lightning bolts were slamming into his mind.
If you take the lieutenant governor’s lecture, and replace the word ‘medicinal plant’ with the word ‘governor,’ then... everything makes sense.
If you wanted to poison the governor, you couldn’t do it in a bold and decisive way. You would need to do it just like quietly watering a plant. You would need to gradually change the environment around the governor without him even realizing it.... And the environment is the population of the county capital.
Without the governor ever realizing it, you could change his diet.... In this case, his ‘diet’ would be the most crucial element of the lightmost fatehavoc pill. Destiny aura! As the governor slowly absorbed the destiny aura, he would be affected from the inside.
The lieutenant governor didn’t actually do anything to the governor specifically. The governor did it to himself through his normal routine. The lieutenant governor just created a way to influence the governor’s environment and diet.
Xu Qing trembled, and his heart pounded.
In other words, the lieutenant governor didn’t actually administer any poison at all. He treated the governor like a plant. To poison him... he used all of the humans in the county capital!
The harmless and inexpensive pallid boluses were the carriers. They had the power of the lightmost fatehavoc pill in them. As the years passed, and countless people consumed those pills constantly, they transformed the destiny aura, and by extension, the governor’s diet.
By using the destiny aura of all humans in the county capital, he transformed and influenced the governor, all for the purpose of ultimately poisoning him. How utterly devious....
Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he realized that everything made perfect sense. The empty wish box had once contained the lightmost fatehavoc pill. Because it had been in the box for so long, the fragrance of osmanthus flowers remained in the box even after the pill was taken out.
That mission had revolved around an agent who was in Holytide territory. After uncovering a monumental secret, that spy had fled back to human territory. Looking back, Xu Qing realized that the agent had probably been dead all along. The wish box that Xu Qing and the others had recovered had been in the hands of his son.
And then there was Classified Dossier 19, which contained the evidence Palace Lord Kong needed to verify the governor’s cause of death.
Everything made sense. Everything.
Next, Xu Qing thought about the boy in D-132, who was a manifestation of Sea-Sealing County’s destiny aura. It was only after they brought the wish box back to the county capital that he suddenly became listless and seemingly sick.
Back then, Xu Qing had assumed that listless state came because the boy had somehow encountered an unclean thing. However, the boy recovered very quickly, and thus, Xu Qing never thought more about it. And why should he have, given the scant information he had back then?
Later, the governor died, the Corrections Division exploded, and the boy went missing. Xu Qing had assumed the boy went missing because of the collapse of the Corrections Division. But now that he looked back, he realized that obviously wasn’t the case!
After completing Classified Dossier 19, Palace Lord Kong had already started investigating the matter. Sadly, in the end, he was not omniscient and omnipotent. Before he had a chance to solve the mystery, the governor died, and the war started. And in the end, he had to suspect everyone.
Xu Qing felt his scalp tingling. Then he thought about how so many humans thought of the lieutenant governor’s pallid boluses as a virtuous achievement. What was more, the lieutenant governor had openly, perhaps even brazenly, revealed his tactics publicly. And yet... not one person caught on to what was really happening.
The ‘pallid bolus’ was a pack of lies! The lieutenant governor had made a mockery of the people of Sea-Sealing County!
Xu Qing felt like he was being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts as he thought back to the lieutenant governor’s eyes when he looked out at the class and delivered that lecture. He had seemed so kind. But now that Xu Qing thought back, he realized that within that kindness was mockery. Scorn. It was like he was playing some cruel guessing game.
“I’m telling you the truth. Every little aspect. But... none of you have realized it, have you?”
This was the truth, revealed. And after putting all the pieces together, Xu Qing didn’t just feel enlightened. He felt scared.
Why would the lieutenant governor do this? Could it be that he and Torchlight...? He stopped for a moment to think. I should have realized the truth even before Chu Tianqun died.
Xu Qing had never forgotten what Chu Tianqun said in the moments before his death, when Xu Qing asked him about the whereabouts of Night Dove and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.
“Do you know how to change the color of the sea? When you figure out how, you’ll get your answer.”
Xu Qing looked out into the night at the capital city.
The color of the sea. Based on the lieutenant governor’s method of enacting change, the way to change the color of a sea would be to change the countless streams flowing into it. It would happen so slowly that, before the sea realized what was happening, it would be a different color.
“That’s the answer,” Xu Qing murmured quietly.
The lieutenant governor is probably the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Either that, or he’s Night Dove. And he’s the one who murdered the governor. The mysterious figure in the black cloak who appeared on the battlefield wasn’t Marquis Yao. It was the lieutenant governor.
Xu Qing understood everything now. He understood the truth. Except, he wasn’t sure what to do with this information. The person who had assigned him to investigate the mystery was dead. The lieutenant governor was now the heart and soul of Sea-Sealing County. All the leaders looked to him for guidance. Given his ‘virtuous achievement’ with the pallid bolus, he was thought highly of by the emperor and had won the hearts of the people.
He was like a sun shining in the sky. Given the circumstances surrounding Seventh Prince’s arrival, it seemed obvious that the two of them were working together.
The reason that white jade hand appeared in Forbidden by the Immortal is because they had already worked out a deal....
Sighing, Xu Qing opened the door of his sword pavilion, walked out, and looked out at the night sky. Eventually, a glimmer of light appeared on the horizon, which gradually illuminated the dome of heaven. It was the sign that dawn had come. The light seemed to spread faster than ever. Along with the light gave waves of heat. It was at that moment that all cultivators in Sea-Sealing County received a message from the lieutenant governor.
“Twenty hours ago, Emperor Dark War unleashed a domain treasure into the heart of Nightshade territory!”
Xu Qing sat there quietly. Eventually, he looked up, his heart and mind trembling as wave after wave of shock crashed into them.
“The lieutenant governor....” he murmured.
Xu Qing hadn’t dealt much with the lieutenant governor, but he had always respected him.
The reason for that was his skill in alchemy, which reminded Xu Qing of Grandmaster Bai and the grand elder from the Swordsage Court in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. He remembered how kind the lieutenant governor had been when he first arrived in the county capital, and also what Honor Guard Sun had said about the ‘virtuous achievement’ of inventing the pallid bolus. Once the war started, Xu Qing had noticed repeatedly how exhausted the lieutenant governor seemed. Back when dealing with the Demi-Immortals, the lieutenant governor had almost immediately picked up on Xu Qing’s ruse, and had played along. True, the lieutenant governor had quickly fit in to the new arrangement when Seventh Prince arrived, but that alone didn’t mean much.
Later, the lieutenant governor was responsible for many things that benefited Sea-Sealing County. He worked with the deputy palace lords for the three palaces to successfully submit many official requests to Seventh Prince. After Xu Qing had just returned, it was the lieutenant governor who dealt with the cabal of nonhumans who had protested Xu Qing’s conscription orders.
After Seventh Prince took over and sought to make changes to the Swordsage Palace’s rules and reward systems, it was the lieutenant governor who negotiated with Seventh Prince on the swordsage’s behalf.
The lieutenant governor’s influence was present in so many things.
Palace Lord Kong had trusted him with the safekeeping of the capital city. Even if the palace lord had suspected him, he still had a lot of trust in him. During the war, the lieutenant governor never procrastinated in anything. He worked diligently to serve the front lines, earned the confidence of the mortals, and became a pillar of stability. The only reason the front lines had been able to hold strong as long as they did was because of the lieutenant governor’s hard work.
He really had accomplished many virtuous achievements. He really was someone who kept the interior safe during a time of war. He really was someone who fought for the rights of Sea-Sealing County even after Seventh Prince came and took over.
Given all of that, Xu Qing had a hard time believing that he could be some sort of villainous mastermind. Previously, there had never been a single thing to lead him to suspect the lieutenant governor. He certainly hadn’t come across any evidence implicating him.
As Xu Qing sat there, he suppressed his shock. This was too important of a matter, and he couldn’t do anything rash. Therefore, he took this new clue and tried to fit it in with everything he had uncovered up to this point.
He thought back to the information in Palace Lord Kong’s jade slip, and also what he had uncovered at Mount Daybreak.
According to Classified Dossier 19, the empty wish box once contained a lightmost fatehavoc pill. Palace Lord Kong was aware of that, which was why he was certain the governor died because of that pill. After all, there are few things that could kill someone as strong as the governor in such a quiet, nondramatic way. The only exception would be someone at least as strong as a Smoldering God. But if someone like that were involved, what would be the point of the war? All those factors indicate that a lightmost fatehavoc pill had to be the murder weapon.
Xu Qing was mentally laying out all the clues in the most logical fashion possible.
However, to use a lightmost fatehavoc pill, one would first need a stream of daybreak light. That was what Palace Lord Kong wanted me to investigate. That, and the method by which the poison was administered.
Back when Xu Qing and Kong Xianglong had discussed this matter, they hadn’t even been able to come up with a theory about how the poison was administered. How could the governor, who was blessed with destiny aura and was halfway into the Smoldering God level, not notice someone trying to poison him?
I got to the bottom of the daybreak light. I proved that there was some daybreak light whose existence didn’t make it into the official records. And that made it seem even more likely that we were dealing with a lightmost fatehavoc pill. As for how it was administered....
Xu Qing looked down at the powder that was all that remained of the pallid bolus he had just crushed. Then he took the remaining pallid bolus out of the pill bottle. He had previously studied this pill. Back then, he had come to the conclusion that it was just a more effective version of the white bolus, and that its function was to extrude mutagen. The concoction method for the pill was unique, such that despite Xu Qing’s skill in the dao of alchemy, he couldn’t figure it out by merely studying the pill.
What was more, the pill contained many medicinal plants that didn’t seem to be well-matched. They only seemed to become effective after having been transformed in some way. That actually conformed to the lieutenant governor’s unique dao of medicine. He would transform medicinal plants by altering their environment.
Xu Qing’s eyes hardened as he thought about that. It was as if a huge hand were clearing the fog in his mind. He suddenly recalled the first time he had seen the lieutenant governor, which was when he taught a lesson to all the new swordsages.
“If you want to affect a medicinal plant, you can’t be bold and decisive. You don’t need to make yin-yang adjustments to change it. You just water it quietly.
“If you gradually change its environment, as well its diet, you can exert a huge influence on the plant without it even realizing it.
“To put it plainly, you’re not actually transforming the plant. It’s using its own power to transform itself. All you’re doing is giving it the proper environment in which to change.”
That was what the lieutenant governor had said in his lecture. Upon hearing those words, Xu Qing had felt deep admiration. He couldn’t help but respect the lieutenant governor after learning that he had come up with such a useful method of alchemy. After all, it was that method which led to the transformation of the white bolus into the pallid bolus, which had been such a blessing for people in the capital.
But now that Xu Qing thought back to that lecture, it made him feel like lightning bolts were slamming into his mind.
If you take the lieutenant governor’s lecture, and replace the word ‘medicinal plant’ with the word ‘governor,’ then... everything makes sense.
If you wanted to poison the governor, you couldn’t do it in a bold and decisive way. You would need to do it just like quietly watering a plant. You would need to gradually change the environment around the governor without him even realizing it.... And the environment is the population of the county capital.
Without the governor ever realizing it, you could change his diet.... In this case, his ‘diet’ would be the most crucial element of the lightmost fatehavoc pill. Destiny aura! As the governor slowly absorbed the destiny aura, he would be affected from the inside.
The lieutenant governor didn’t actually do anything to the governor specifically. The governor did it to himself through his normal routine. The lieutenant governor just created a way to influence the governor’s environment and diet.
Xu Qing trembled, and his heart pounded.
In other words, the lieutenant governor didn’t actually administer any poison at all. He treated the governor like a plant. To poison him... he used all of the humans in the county capital!
The harmless and inexpensive pallid boluses were the carriers. They had the power of the lightmost fatehavoc pill in them. As the years passed, and countless people consumed those pills constantly, they transformed the destiny aura, and by extension, the governor’s diet.
By using the destiny aura of all humans in the county capital, he transformed and influenced the governor, all for the purpose of ultimately poisoning him. How utterly devious....
Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he realized that everything made perfect sense. The empty wish box had once contained the lightmost fatehavoc pill. Because it had been in the box for so long, the fragrance of osmanthus flowers remained in the box even after the pill was taken out.
That mission had revolved around an agent who was in Holytide territory. After uncovering a monumental secret, that spy had fled back to human territory. Looking back, Xu Qing realized that the agent had probably been dead all along. The wish box that Xu Qing and the others had recovered had been in the hands of his son.
And then there was Classified Dossier 19, which contained the evidence Palace Lord Kong needed to verify the governor’s cause of death.
Everything made sense. Everything.
Next, Xu Qing thought about the boy in D-132, who was a manifestation of Sea-Sealing County’s destiny aura. It was only after they brought the wish box back to the county capital that he suddenly became listless and seemingly sick.
Back then, Xu Qing had assumed that listless state came because the boy had somehow encountered an unclean thing. However, the boy recovered very quickly, and thus, Xu Qing never thought more about it. And why should he have, given the scant information he had back then?
Later, the governor died, the Corrections Division exploded, and the boy went missing. Xu Qing had assumed the boy went missing because of the collapse of the Corrections Division. But now that he looked back, he realized that obviously wasn’t the case!
After completing Classified Dossier 19, Palace Lord Kong had already started investigating the matter. Sadly, in the end, he was not omniscient and omnipotent. Before he had a chance to solve the mystery, the governor died, and the war started. And in the end, he had to suspect everyone.
Xu Qing felt his scalp tingling. Then he thought about how so many humans thought of the lieutenant governor’s pallid boluses as a virtuous achievement. What was more, the lieutenant governor had openly, perhaps even brazenly, revealed his tactics publicly. And yet... not one person caught on to what was really happening.
The ‘pallid bolus’ was a pack of lies! The lieutenant governor had made a mockery of the people of Sea-Sealing County!
Xu Qing felt like he was being struck by 10,000,000 lightning bolts as he thought back to the lieutenant governor’s eyes when he looked out at the class and delivered that lecture. He had seemed so kind. But now that Xu Qing thought back, he realized that within that kindness was mockery. Scorn. It was like he was playing some cruel guessing game.
“I’m telling you the truth. Every little aspect. But... none of you have realized it, have you?”
This was the truth, revealed. And after putting all the pieces together, Xu Qing didn’t just feel enlightened. He felt scared.
Why would the lieutenant governor do this? Could it be that he and Torchlight...? He stopped for a moment to think. I should have realized the truth even before Chu Tianqun died.
Xu Qing had never forgotten what Chu Tianqun said in the moments before his death, when Xu Qing asked him about the whereabouts of Night Dove and the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan.
“Do you know how to change the color of the sea? When you figure out how, you’ll get your answer.”
Xu Qing looked out into the night at the capital city.
The color of the sea. Based on the lieutenant governor’s method of enacting change, the way to change the color of a sea would be to change the countless streams flowing into it. It would happen so slowly that, before the sea realized what was happening, it would be a different color.
“That’s the answer,” Xu Qing murmured quietly.
The lieutenant governor is probably the Crown Prince of Violet and Cyan. Either that, or he’s Night Dove. And he’s the one who murdered the governor. The mysterious figure in the black cloak who appeared on the battlefield wasn’t Marquis Yao. It was the lieutenant governor.
Xu Qing understood everything now. He understood the truth. Except, he wasn’t sure what to do with this information. The person who had assigned him to investigate the mystery was dead. The lieutenant governor was now the heart and soul of Sea-Sealing County. All the leaders looked to him for guidance. Given his ‘virtuous achievement’ with the pallid bolus, he was thought highly of by the emperor and had won the hearts of the people.
He was like a sun shining in the sky. Given the circumstances surrounding Seventh Prince’s arrival, it seemed obvious that the two of them were working together.
The reason that white jade hand appeared in Forbidden by the Immortal is because they had already worked out a deal....
Sighing, Xu Qing opened the door of his sword pavilion, walked out, and looked out at the night sky. Eventually, a glimmer of light appeared on the horizon, which gradually illuminated the dome of heaven. It was the sign that dawn had come. The light seemed to spread faster than ever. Along with the light gave waves of heat. It was at that moment that all cultivators in Sea-Sealing County received a message from the lieutenant governor.
“Twenty hours ago, Emperor Dark War unleashed a domain treasure into the heart of Nightshade territory!”
