Chapter 26: The Clouds Disperse and the Sun Comes Out, Green Mountains in the Distance

  "What's your idea?"

  "Search." Ming Xuan said in one word.

  "Where should I start?" Qing Chen asked.

  "Please instruct me further, Master Feng." Ming Xuan replied.

  The seven palace guards looked at Qing Chen without exception. Qing Chen's starry eyes shone dimly: "I want to go and take a look at Rou Qie's corpse first." He turned around and asked again: "Fourth brother, are you willing to come together?"

  Ye Tian nodded at Shi Yi, saying: "Eleventh brother, tidy up the three armies and return to Beijing a little later."

  "Alright, I'll wait for you outside the valley." He then turned to Ming Xuan with a smile and said: "I'll take care of killing those dead men in the Bi Xue Pavilion all around us. You bury them yourselves. We cooperate fairly."

  "Ming Xuan cupped his hands and said: 'Thank you, Your Highness.' The eleventh one shrugged and turned to leave first."

  At night, Ling Bian accompanied you to the dust together, and there were already subordinates leading the way in front.

  The body of Tian Yao Gong's back hall was quietly lying on the ground, covered with a layer of white cloth.

  Although the wound of Ming Yu was not healed, he insisted on coming together. At this time, he gently lifted the white cloth covering the corpse, and a cold killing intent surged out of his originally emotionless eyes.

  One slash killed him, cutting horizontally from the neck and severing the carotid artery, with a large amount of blood spraying out and covering his entire body.

  Ye Tian Ling had grown accustomed to the brutal scenes of war, and was unmoved by the sight. Ming Xuan and the others were from the jianghu, where life and death were not taken seriously. Yet, when they saw Qing Chen calmly bend down to examine the wound on Tie Cheng's body, Ye Tian Ling's eyes showed a hint of surprise.

  "It's a knife wound." Ming said in a low voice.

  "Uh-huh." Qing Chen nodded and stretched out his hand: "Lend me your knife for a moment."

  His wrist moved slightly, and the delicate thin knife fell into his palm. The blade was like a cicada's wing, with a faintly visible blood color, it was a good killer.

  Qingchen put down the snow-covered corpse, and Snow Battle sniffed at it, letting out a low growl. Qingchen took over the knife and said to the crowd behind him: "You all wait for me outside, don't enter without permission, Ming Ze will guard the sword and ask you to stay."

  Apart from Xie Jing and Su Niang, Ming Ya and others were all cold-faced, but Ming Xuan said: "Follow the order of Zun Feng." Take the lead in leaving the Tian Yao Palace, and Ming Ze stood with a straight face, not moving an inch.

  Ye Tianling did not leave with them, but instead stayed behind to watch Qingchen with great interest.

  "You won't feel sick, will you?" he said, raising the scalpel for autopsy.

  She innocently raised an eyebrow under his dissatisfied gaze: "What's wrong with you? You're not going to help?"

  Ye Tian Ling crouched down beside her, seeing that she carefully inserted the thin knife along the wound on her neck, and the wound and the knife seemed to match. She looked at the wound while saying to Ming Ze: "I'm here to investigate the murderer, you watch from the side, so there will be a witness later."

  Ming watched her every move intently and nodded slightly.

  She moved the knife back and forth, furrowed her brow, and carefully examined the wound again before putting the knife away. Then she seriously searched around Qie Chi's body for any clues, suddenly discovering that Qie Chi's right hand was tightly clenched. Although he had been dead for some time, his body had not yet completely stiffened; she hesitated for a moment before finally reaching out to move it.

  At this time, a hand came over and blocked it. It was Ye Tianling. She withdrew her hand in confusion, but saw Ye Tianling slowly pry open the fingers that had been gripping Qie's hand.

  Suddenly, something fell into the eyes of both people. Ye Tian picked it up and held it in his palm, weighing it slightly. The object swayed gently with his slender fingers, sinking heavily. Ming Ze saw this thing, and his pupils suddenly contracted in his originally dull eyes, but he didn't make a sound.

  "Is it gold?" Qing Chen asked.

  "Uh-huh." Ye Tianling said faintly, casually tore off a corner of his robe to wrap the thing up and handed it to Qingchen.

  After taking over, Ye Tianling raised the severed right hand of Qīng Chén. Qīng Chén and Míng Zé saw that there were several bruises on the twisted fingers, which should have been left by hitting something hard before death.

  Ming then reached out and gently closed her tightly shut eyes. Ye Tian Ling stood up, casually covering her with a white cloth: "It's all over."

  "Hmm." Qing Chen seemed to be thinking of something and said to them: "Let's go take another look at the place where we found the body."

  "Alright." Ye Tianling did not object.

  You dusted out the door and again hinted that Xue Zhan sniffed around the corpse, and came to the scene of the crime with Ye Tianling and Ming Ze. In the not-too-dense thicket on the south side of the mountain valley, they saw the staff of Ming Yi Building handling the aftermath, roughly estimating that there were many casualties.

  But unexpectedly, the scene where the corpse was found had been cleaned up. Qing furrowed his brow: "Can only roughly look to see if there are any unexpected gains."

  Three people looked around carefully, and Xue Zhan followed them to sniff around in the grass. After a while, Qing Chen and Ye Tianling exchanged a glance, shook their heads, and found nothing.

  At this time, however, Xue Zhan let out a low cry and Ming Ze turned his head to look back. He suddenly let out a long sigh. His gaze fell on the shadows of several leaves, where there was something golden, exactly the same as what had just been found in Zhui Qie's hand.

  Ming then picked up the thing in front of him: "I didn't think he would really do such a thing." The tone was full of regret.

  You took over the object and said to Ming: "Go back, in a while you will have to trouble Hu Jian Shi again."

  Ming then bowed his head and said: "Don't worry, Master Feng."

  "Since you can't bear to take action, why don't you see if Ling Wang is willing to help or not?"

  Ming Ze glanced at Ye Tianling and said, "Eliminating traitors is a duty within the Heavenly Authority Palace's jurisdiction. Your Highness has already been too accommodating today, I dare not trouble you further."

  "You nodded and said, 'So be it.'"

  Back to the partition hall, Ming Yi and others had already waited anxiously. From Qing Chen's expression, nothing could be discerned, let alone Ye Tian Ling and Ming Ze's faces which remained unchanged.

  Xie Jing met you and asked: "Have you made any discoveries?"

  "You probably already know who the murderer is, but I'd like to verify it." She gave a faint smile to Qi Gong Hu Jian and pointed to a table beside her: "Can everyone please put their personal weapons on this table?"

  Under the silent and mysterious atmosphere, everyone's face showed different expressions. To separate oneself from one's weapon was a great taboo for those who had tasted blood on their blades in Jianghu. Several people exchanged glances with Qingchen for a moment, then Xie Jing raised his hand and placed a long sword on the table, followed by Ming Ze putting down his broadsword as well.

  The rest of the people, except for Ming Xuan who never used a weapon, Su Niang had a delicate silver whip, Ming Shu had a golden abacus, Ming Zhi had a soul hook, and Ming Mi had a pair of thin knives that fit close to her body, one in her own hand and one still with Qing Chen. Qing Chen took it out from his sleeve and also placed it on the table.

  "I apologize, but I have narrowed down the killer to a few of you swordsmen. It's not an easy task to help the Azure Blood Sect infiltrate the main altar without being detected, only someone with a high position in the Seven Palaces can do it easily. So, I'm afraid I've offended some of you." She paused for a moment, seeing no objections from the others, and continued her analysis: "I just examined the body of Charlot, and found that the fatal wound was the knife injury on his neck. The wound is shallow on the left and deep on the right, if the killer wasn't left-handed, then he must have attacked him from behind, which would result in this situation. From the direction of the wound, I further deduce that the killer attacked him from behind. You all said earlier that Charlot was a good fighter in the Dark Clothes Building, so someone who can silently take his life from behind without him being on guard must be either much stronger than him or extremely familiar with him. May I ask, which one of you swordsmen is most likely to make Charlot completely unguarded?"

  Ming Xuan fell silent for a moment, not answering immediately, but instead looked at Ming Yin, whose face changed color.

  "You followed the gaze of Ming Xuan and looked at Ming Yin, and then said: 'Moreover, from the degree of opening of the wound, it can be judged that the murder weapon is an extremely thin and sharp short knife.'"

  At this point, Su Niang couldn't help but softly exclaim: "Ming Yin, you..."

  A fierce anger suddenly arose in his heart, and he blurted out: "What do you mean? Char was under my command, among the seven of us only I used a sword, are you saying that I killed Char?"

  "You're smiling, but don't be in a hurry. Everything needs evidence, and I haven't finished speaking yet. Calculating the time of Charcoal's murder, you, me, Ming Xuan, Xie Jing, and Su Niang were all together, and it seems that none of us had the opportunity to kill him." She walked over to the table with Snow War in her arms and said, "Everyone knows that Snow War is a rare spiritual beast. I just let it sniff around Charcoal's body, so why don't we see how it reacts to whose weapon?" Snow War jumped from Qing Chen's hands onto the table, first sniffing at Ming You's twin blades, and immediately let out a cry. Qing Chen picked up Ming You's knife and said, "I used this knife to touch Charcoal's wound."

  Xue Zhan continued to identify the weapons on the table one by one, and when he came to Ming Ze's sword, he looked up and nodded. Qing Chen said: "Ming Ze was with me to inspect the body, of course, also left a scent."

  Xie Jing's sword, Su Niang's silver whip, Ming Ze's soul hook, Xue Zhan walked through one by one, and finally stopped at Ming Xia's golden abacus, letting out a low growl again.

  You walked up and fiddled with the abacus: "Huh? This abacus seems to be inaccurate, how can we calculate without two beads? Where did those two beads go?"

  His mustache twitched slightly, but his expression remained unchanged: "I lost it a few days ago."

  "You're right," Qīng Chén nodded. Turning around to face Yè Tiān Líng, he smiled and said: "Your Highness is a prince, surely you don't lack gold and silver. Why not bestow upon me two golden pearls as a gift?"

  Ye Tian's sword eyebrow moved, and he stretched out his left hand. Two clear yellow abacus beads followed the movement of his fingers up and down, and he said lightly: "The Mingyi Building is wealthy and arrogant, even a dead manager has this thing in his hand, you can pick up gold in the mountains and fields, where do I need to bother?"

  The Guardian Sword Master's face changed upon hearing this, and Ming Yi shouted in a stern voice: "Ming Xia!"

  Ming Xie spoke calmly and slowly, with a gentle smile on his face, and said to Qing Chen: "Master Feng, I am loyal to Ming Yi Lou and have a deep affection for Zhen, how could I do such a thing? These two calculating beads have been lost for a long time..." He then changed the subject: "Besides... someone followed Master Feng to examine the body, it shouldn't be difficult to secretly drop the two calculating beads at the scene, should it?" The implication of his words was that he was directly pointing at Ming Ze.

  His face turned black, and his already stiff expression became even more frightening. Just as he was about to erupt, Xun raised a hand: "Oh, so you're like brothers. What you said doesn't seem unreasonable, but I still have some doubts, so please enlighten me. Earlier, Kuangzi had applied several potent poisons to Ming's body, and both Su Nang and Ming were barely able to escape unscathed after just a slight touch. You escorted Ming back safely, yet showed no signs of poisoning yourself. Did you know that Feng Qianxian and Su Yuanchen are not pleasant people to deal with? The wound on your arm is shallow, but why did it go from the outside in? Was it self-inflicted? I examined the wounds on Xue's body earlier, and they seem to match the wound on your arm, as if they were caused by the same blade. These things have left me baffled, so can you enlighten me?"

  Ming Hui's expression finally changed. Qing Chen didn't give him a chance to catch his breath, and with a stern gaze, he stared straight into Ming Hui's eyes: "Ming Hui, where is your dagger? In the sole of your boot? On your thigh? At your waist? Or in your sleeve? Isn't there many ways to hide a thin blade close to one's body without being discovered?"

  Xie Jing and others had already withdrawn their troops, sealing off the four sides of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure. Ming Xuan's voice was low and stern: "Ming Xia, I mistakenly placed my trust in you, yet you have done something so unjust."

  Ming Xie's eyes flickered uncertainly, and a look of fear slowly appeared on his face. He suddenly knelt down to the ground: "Master Feng, I know my mistake, I..." As soon as he spoke, two sleeve knives with blue light flashed out unexpectedly, shooting towards Qing Chen with a sharp whistling sound.

  The dagger came quickly, but there were two yellow awns beside you that were faster than the dagger. "Ding" - they collided and flew away, foiling Ming Xie's sneak attack with his sleeve dagger.

  The two golden abacus beads that Ye Tianling had been playing with in his hand suddenly fell, and the remaining force of the sleeve knife broke through the air and attacked Ming Xie's face.

  Ming Hui suddenly retreated in shock, and the people rushed towards the door. Su Niang's silver whip swept through the air, blocking his escape route, while Ming Ze and Ming Jian simultaneously arrived with their swords, pressing him forward. Xie Jing and Ming Dian did not advance to attack together, but instead guarded the crucial positions of the doors and windows.

  "You're really generous, Fourth Brother," Xiangyun said with a smile. "I thought these two beads could be exchanged for quite a few silver coins."

  "Want money but don't want your life."

  "Younger brother really said it right!"

  Inside the Purple Mansion, Ming Xie was forced to be at a disadvantage by several people. Ming Xuan sighed and said, "Ming Yi Lou treated him kindly, I don't know why he did such things."

  "Men are nothing but concerned with power, lust and wealth. Let's ask him which one he desires most." She looked at Ming Xuan: "Is this the first thing?"

  "Subordinates obey with their hearts and mouths."

  You smiled lightly and turned around, saying: "I'll escort the Fourth Prince out of the valley, the rest is up to you, thoroughly investigate his accomplices, don't let a single one escape."

  "I obey your orders."

  Xue Zhan saw Qing Chen turn around, and immediately followed her, jumping onto her shoulder. Qing Chen was startled by it for a moment, raised her hand to gently pat its head, Xue Zhan on her shoulder nimbly turned around, finding the most comfortable position to squat down steadily.

  You and Dust Tonight, Ling rode out together, with thousands of black-armored warriors waiting silently outside the valley. Tonight, Ling waved his hand, and each general adjusted their troops, preparing to return to the city.

  You dust but bring home reins: "I don't want to go back to Yge, so send you here."

  Ye Tian Ling unexpectedly turned back: "What?" Shi Yi came over and joined them, also stunned upon hearing this: "Qing Chen, aren't you going back with us to see the Emperor?"

  "You want to see the Heavenly Emperor? That's even more impossible."

  "Why?" asked Eleven.

  "You hesitated for a moment and said: 'Not only Tian Di, Feng Xiang, Zhan Wang... all of them... it's best if we don't meet.'"

  Ye Tian's eyebrows furrowed slightly, her gaze falling on Qing Chen's hand grasping the reins. Her sleeve slid down a bit, revealing the wrist where Ye Tian had given her that string of icy blue crystals.

  In an instant, Ye Tianling shifted his gaze to the Mingyi Building's main hall and said faintly, "Then don't force it, Eleventh Brother. Let's go." He turned his horse around and left on his own.

  "Ah! Fourth brother!" Eleventh didn't expect that after searching for Qingchen all night, he would leave just like that. Seeing Ye Tianling leave resolutely, Qingchen's heart suddenly sank, and she felt as if the solid support beneath her had been pulled away, leaving her feeling lost and disoriented.

  "Qīn chén!" Eleven's voice called her back, and she unexpectedly found that there was no usual lazy smile on his face, but a serious expression: "I don't know what's going on between you and Fèng Xiàng or Seventh Imperial Brother, but Fourth Imperial Brother's mobilization of the Xuān Jiǎ Jūn this time has alarmed Father Emperor. Unexpectedly, Fèng Xiàng smoothed things over in front of Father Emperor, saying that his newly returned daughter was kidnapped by scoundrels, so he asked Fourth Imperial Brother for help. When Fourth Imperial Brother returns, he must give an explanation to Father Emperor; otherwise..." Eleven didn't continue, but both of them understood clearly in their hearts. For a prince like Yè Tiān Líng who led troops, mobilizing soldiers in the imperial capital was already taboo. If the Heavenly Emperor had other suspicions, it would be easy to stir up unnecessary trouble.

  "You furrowed your brow: 'Phoenix symbol?'"

  Eleventh nodded: "Feng Xiang said that Second Miss's maiden name is Feng Qingchen. You... are actually..."

  Horizontal branches, you sighed and asked, what does this mean? It startled the Heavenly Emperor, and even if nothing happened, something would still happen. Now that things have come to this, how can she stay out of it? She turned her head to look at Ye Tian Ling walking further and further away along the narrow mountain valley, his black clothes fluttering in the gentle breeze, gradually fading into the warm sunlight of deep autumn, yet somehow he seemed so lonely amidst his tall and upright figure.

  She stared blankly ahead, and suddenly a complex light flashed in her eyes, turning the horse's head to chase after Ye Tianling's back.

  The sound of hooves echoes, carrying the brisk autumn wind and gentle sunlight, driving away the chill that has just risen in the mountains, shattering the long-standing icy coldness. The night sky seems to slow down slightly, and the figure's back appears clear in Qing's eyes for an instant, the silent deep black vaguely tinged with a faint golden edge, gradually merging into the warmth of the autumn sun's afterglow.

  "You two are simply my nemesis, I'm going back with you!" Qing Chen said helplessly to the eleven who came together.

  Eleven raised an eyebrow, and that infuriating smile returned to his face: "You're the bane of our existence, aren't you? I haven't had a good night's sleep since I met you."

  "You're finally satisfied now that we've reached a point where we can't coexist, where water and fire can't be together, where our positions are irreconcilable, and where we can't live under the same sky?"

  Eleven burst out laughing loudly: "Why don't you go and tell Fourth Brother this?"

  You didn't show any weakness, and retorted: "If you have the guts, go tell him yourself, dare you?"

  "Eldest brother is like father, I dare not."

  You're quite frank, aren't you? You glared at him with anger, pointing your finger in front of him: "As a condition for reconciliation, I want to go eat the honey-glazed crispy pigeon at Rong Le Fang, and the pastries at Qian Yue Fang, and..."

  "Bandits!" They had caught up with Ye Tianling at this time. Shi Yi smiled and said: "Fourth brother, you're going to lose your wealth."

  Ye Tianling had obviously heard their conversation earlier, and saw Xing Chen pouting as he walked to his side, saying indifferently: "I will clear things up with the Emperor myself, you don't have to go back."

  "You won't be reluctant to part with a few pieces of pastry, will you, Fourth Brother? Just now, I lost two golden abacus beads and exchanged them for..."

  As the night sky's gaze swept over, she hastily waved her hand: "Don't frown, I'll be lenient if you confess." And so she detailed to them how she was kidnapped in the mountains, how she arrived at Tian Du, how Ye Tian Zhan rescued her into the Wang Fu, how she met the Heavenly Emperor, how she was recognized by the Feng family as their long-lost daughter, how she managed the Four-Faced Building, and how she got entangled with the Ming Yi Building - only glossing over what Ye Tian Zhan had told her through Jing Hui.

  Ye Tianling listened quietly for a moment before suddenly asking: "Why do you want to become the master of Mingyi Building?"

  Your lips slightly raised: "Because this way can command Ming Yi Building."

  Ye Tianling seemed to have been staring at her eyes all along and said: "What do you want to order Mingyi Building to do?"

  A hint of a clear smile appeared in his eyes as he looked at her. She turned to him and said, "Do nothing."

  Ye Tian's eyes flashed with a faint smile, and he didn't speak again for a while before saying, "Recently it's the Empress Dowager's birthday, Father Emperor's mood should be good, nothing will happen."

  Under the sunset, birds fly back to the forest, and the remaining light of dusk falls on my heart with a warm feeling. You ride a horse with a fluttering dust, galloping in the wind and clouds, riding away together, the green mountains are getting farther and farther, the mountain road turns again and another peak appears.