Chapter 36

Who knows if there are any traps or something inside here? He definitely doesn’t want to die before even starting his mission…

After the secret room’s door opened, Cheng Hui didn’t go in immediately. Who knows if there are any traps or something inside here? He definitely doesn’t want to die before even starting his mission. He closed the secret room’s door again and walked outside.

The battle between Meng Lang, Ye Qi, and Master Xuan Tan was about to end. Due to the earlier lightning and thunder, Meng Lang was greatly affected and was currently being suppressed by Ye Qi and Master Xuan Tan. Xin Erniang seemed eager to join the fight, but under Ye Qi’s stern gaze, she ultimately didn’t dare to make a move.

“Where’s that old daoist?” Cheng Hui asked.

“Isn’t he over there? I just gave him some medicine, don’t worry, it’s not a big problem,” Xin Erniang replied without even turning her head, her eyes fixed on the three battling figures, trying to glean some experience from them.

“Where?” Cheng Hui was puzzled.

Xin Erniang impatiently said, “Oh, isn’t he just… huh? Where did he go?”

Looking at the empty courtyard, Xin Erniang was also dumbfounded. That old daoist was just coughing up blood a moment ago, how did he disappear in such a short time?

“You sneaky bastard! I knew you had bad intentions! Trying to use me to buy time for them, dream on!” Meng Lang also heard their conversation and immediately cursed angrily. He took a hit from Master Xuan Tan, then suddenly leaped high into the air and quickly vanished.

After Ye Qi returned, he looked at the spot where the old daoist had disappeared and said gravely, “Something’s not right.”

Xin Erniang looked confused, “Why do I feel like ever since we came here, we’ve encountered a bunch of messy stuff? It’s making my head spin.”

Master Xuan Tan and Ye Qi also looked grim. The sudden disappearance of Lady Xie and the old daoist, coupled with Meng Lang’s parting words, made the situation seem increasingly perilous.

“I found some things inside earlier, everyone come take a look,” Cheng Hui said, thinking that overthinking was useless, and decided to talk about his discovery.

Everyone was indeed intrigued and followed him back into the room to see what he had found.

“Abomination!” Master Xuan Tan cursed angrily after looking at the book.

“Bah! This bastard doesn’t deserve to be called human!” Xin Erniang cursed.

Ye Qi remained silent, not because he wasn’t angry, but as a member of the Inspection Division, he had seen many cases and naturally witnessed human greed. Like Master Xie, who harmed his unborn child to use as paint. He had encountered a case where the head of a family, a man in his seventies, slaughtered all his blood relatives in secret to refine them into elixirs for immortality, which was truly heinous.

Cheng Hui had already vented his anger earlier, so he wasn’t as furious now. He opened the secret room’s door, and Ye Qi was the first to go in. Cheng Hui followed closely behind. Once inside, they lit the candles on the table. The secret room wasn’t large, and various paintings hung on the walls.

These paintings included landscapes and portraits, but the landscapes lacked the charm compared to the portraits. It felt like the landscapes were dead, while the portraits… were alive.

“Who’s there!”

Just as everyone was focused on the paintings, Cheng Hui suddenly felt a chill on his back. He quickly turned around and saw a shadow crouching in the corner behind the secret room’s door.

The others also saw the shadow and instinctively became alert. The shadow didn’t move, as if it hadn’t heard them.

Cheng Hui watched for a while and felt that this shadow seemed to be the ‘Miss Xie’ whom Lady Xie had comforted earlier. He softly asked, “Miss Xie Wan?”

The shadow didn’t move or respond. The others exchanged glances. The sudden disappearance of Lady Xie and the old daoist meant that their words were likely lies, so it was hard to say who this shadow really was. It could be Miss Xie, but it was more likely some unfortunate wandering ghost.

Seeing no response from the shadow, Cheng Hui thought for a moment and tentatively asked, “Master Xie?”

Upon hearing his words, the shadow actually moved. It lifted its head and slowly stood up, the black mist outlining a human figure, clearly that of an adult man.

Cheng Hui let out a long breath. After wandering around the courtyard in confusion for so long, they finally found some clues. “You…!”

Before he could finish speaking, Master Xie’s remnant soul suddenly started walking towards them.

“Be careful!” Ah Qiu quickly warned.

Cheng Hui didn’t speak. He didn’t sense any malice from this shadow, and since the figure was moving slowly, they could easily react. He signaled to the others with his eyes, and they slowly moved to avoid being trapped inside the secret room by the shadow.

Master Xie slowly walked to the wall and gently caressed the paintings. Even without seeing his features, his obsession with the paintings was palpable from his actions. He touched each of his works, seemingly reminiscing about his past achievements.

The group quietly watched as Master Xie moved from one wall to another, touching every portrait. After he finished with the last wall, he suddenly vanished.

Cheng Hui and the others were stunned for a moment. Master Xuan Tan took out a magical tool to search around, then shook his head.

“That’s impossible,” Ye Qi frowned. He had also tried using the Inspection Division’s methods to find the remnant soul but ultimately found nothing.

“Um… Master Xie’s remnant soul must be trying to tell us something,” Cheng Hui believed Master Xie didn’t appear for no reason. He hadn’t communicated with Lady Xie before, indicating he didn’t think much of her, which indirectly confirmed that there was something off about Lady Xie. Regarding the tragic incident from back then, who knows what role Lady Xie played in it?

“Ah Hui, did you notice that Master Xie mostly touched the portraits, but only three were landscape paintings?” Ah Qiu suddenly said.

“Yeah.”

Cheng Hui indeed noticed that Master Xie was extremely obsessed with the portraits but indifferent to the landscapes. He wasn’t very knowledgeable about paintings, but he could tell that the three landscapes favored by Master Xie weren’t masterpieces. In fact, they wouldn’t even rank in the top ten among all the landscape paintings.

So the question is, why did Master Xie particularly appreciate those three paintings? According to the book, Master Xie’s portraits had special magic, so his obsession with them was understandable. But why show the same obsession for landscapes, especially mediocre ones?

What Cheng Hui noticed, Ye Qi and Master Xuan Tan, these two big shots, naturally wouldn’t miss. After some discussion, they decided to take down those three paintings for inspection.

Xin Erniang was against it. Ever since reading that book, she felt all the paintings in the secret room emitted a rotten smell. It’s obvious that the paintings collected by Master Xie in the secret room were painted with special pigments.

However, despite her disgust, Xin Erniang knew they had to do what needed to be done. After Ye Qi took down the three paintings, she went over to take a look and sneered, “With this level of painting, you could buy one from any down-and-out scholar on the street for a hundred coins.”

“Oh?” Cheng Hui wasn’t very knowledgeable about paintings and could only tell they were ordinary, but he didn’t have a clear concept of how ordinary.

Xin Erniang sneered, “If Master Xie was at this level back then, I’d really suspect all those people in the capital who praised him were blind.”

Ye Qi and Master Xuan Tan both looked at the three paintings thoughtfully. The paintings were ordinary landscapes with mountains and water, clear distinctions between near and far, and nothing particularly special.

Ye Qi suspected there might be something fishy about the content of these paintings. After all, these three paintings, which caught Master Xie’s remnant soul’s attention, must have something special about them.

The group examined the paintings several times but found nothing. However, after a while, Cheng Hui suddenly remembered the book he had found earlier. With a thought, he picked up a painting and looked at it from the side.

“Indeed!”

“Huh? What did you find?” Xin Erniang asked curiously.

“The thickness of the painting is off; the paper is too thick.”

Ye Qi suddenly realized, “There’s something hidden inside these paintings!”

“You truly have a keen eye, young benefactor,” Master Xuan Tan said, stroking his beard.

Cheng Hui smiled modestly, “It’s mainly experience. That book earlier was handled this way.”

Everyone understood immediately. They had also seen some residual marks on the book pages earlier but hadn’t thought of it at the time.

With a direction, they quickly found a method to split the paintings open, revealing three more paintings hidden between the layers of paper.

“This is…” Ye Qi frowned, and Xin Erniang chimed in, “Isn’t that Meng Lang?”

She looked at the other paintings, “If I’m not mistaken, these three paintings are of Meng Lang, Lady Xie, and Miss Xie. Why did Master Xie paint portraits of these three?”

The four were puzzled. These three paintings were clearly meant for them to see, but what was the purpose?

“Ah Hui, look at the portraits on the walls and ask if they recognize anyone in them,” Ah Qiu suggested.

Cheng Hui followed the suggestion and asked. Ye Qi and Master Xuan Tan exchanged glances. The portraits included both men and women, dressed in various styles, but to say they recognized anyone… Wait, Ye Qi suddenly stood up and walked to a portrait, frowning as he thought, “This seems to be… the wife of the Minister of Rites?”

Seeing the others looking at him, Ye Qi explained that he had met the Minister of Rites a few times and had visited his home, where he saw his wife. He vaguely remembered her looking like this. However, the Minister of Rites’ wife had passed away many years ago, supposedly from illness, with no apparent suspicion.

“When did the wife of the Minister of Rites fall ill?” Cheng Hui asked, relaying Ah Qiu’s question.

Ye Qi paused, trying hard to recall, “I think it was… over ten years ago.”

“Was it after Master Xie left the capital?”

Ye Qi seemed to understand something, “It was indeed around that time.”