An elder dressed in golden, embroidered robes was sitting before a table and a lamp. The white hair and wrinkles around his eyes revealed his old age while the faint aura of dominance lingered around. Time had left its mark on this once gallant man. All that was left was the tender and feeble disposition brought on by old age.

He dipped his calligraphic pen into the ink and continued to write on the paper in front of him.

The silent trio stood in front of this man. However, the normal white-robes had been replaced with rough linen, and their faces were covered in soot and ash.

So this is the city lord… What a pity… His own clan being uprooted by internal turmoil and he can do nothing. He doesn’t have much time left. Even if he reprimands the factions, they will just brush off this man who’s on his death bed.

After Ye Tian had received the note, he had quietly slipped out of his home and back into the bustling night markets. In order to ensure secrecy, the note had likely been delivered by someone trusted and powerful like Hao Nan. To ensure further secrecy, Ye Tian carried a password to a certain house where he dressed up as one of the city lord’s servants. This would allow Ye Tian to sneak into the city lord’s residence without alerting the other factions.

From the looks of it, Yu Ling and Nan Feng had also done the same thing. The three weren’t too annoyed by their disguises anyways. They were used to it. Although, Ye Tian did feel some distaste for the memories that were brought back.

The city lord finished writing and put down his pen.

He gave a deep sigh, “Investigate the death of a high ranking Lu clan member named Lu Ming. Find the killer and report back the killer’s location. It is a good thing that you all are bone stage. Your success rate will be higher.”

The city lord swept his hand over the table and a medallion appeared.

“Here is my city lord medallion. Go to the 28th mansion at the first-class district. That is where your investigation shall begin. Show the medallion to the son of Lu Ming, Lu Xin, and he will assist you.”

Afraid to offend the man in any way possible, the three did not ask any questions and saluted him before leaving. Later, Hao Nan in his silver armor entered the room.

“Master, are you sure about sending those rookies? We could send in someone who’s more reliable.”

“We have no choice. We have no idea how deep Lu Ka has penetrated our forces. Even when the item was highly confidential, Lu Ka still got ahold of it. I can’t send you to investigate or else Lu Ka will deeply hide the item after seeing that you are missing. Hopefully, they will recover the blueprint.”

While on the road out, Nan Feng sighed, “Looks like we won’t be celebrating this festival.”

Yu Ling’s expression also dropped in disappointment while Ye Tian was in deep thought by the side.

***

In the morning, the squad reported at Lu Ming’s mansion which was a traditional chinese courtyard house. Ye Tian knocked on the gate to which a male servant opened the door. Upon seeing the white robes and weapons of the trio, the servant respectfully bowed.

“May I know what the city guards want with this house?”

Ye Tian replied, “Call your young master, Lu Xin.”

The servant hesitated since city guards couldn’t just casually demand to meet with a member of the Lu clan or really any of the 4 clans.

Ye Tian narrowed his eyes in a threatening manner.

“We are here on serious matters.”

Successfully intimidated, the servant decided that it was better to be slightly punished for disturbing the young master rather than severely punished for not taking the matter seriously. The servant left and soon returned with a young man in light green robes.

“You guys are...?"

Ye Tian did not speak and handed over the medallion that was given by the city lord. Lu Xin’s eyes turned serious and focused on inspecting the legitimacy of the medallion. Once Lu Xin was pleased with his inspection, he turned to the servant.

“You saw nothing today. You hear me? Nothing."

The servant was not an idiot and quickly nodded. Lu Xin then turned to the trio.

“Come in.”

The inside of the courtyard was fairly glamorous with clean, painted buildings. There was even a pond with carps and water lilies.

Soon, the trio was led into the underground dungeon that led into a room. Inside the room, there was some blood splattered on the wall along with a table next to a lamp.

This must be where the murder happened.

Ye Tian asked, “Where’s the body?”

“I already had the autopsy report done. You don’t expect me to wait for days until an investigation team arrives, do you? It is my filial duty to at least bury my father if I can’t hold a memorial service.”

Nan Feng raised his head after inspecting the surroundings.

“Well, why can’t you hold a private, quiet memorial service?”

Lu Xin looked at Nan Feng as if he was dumb.

“You guys coming here and that servant have small chances of alerting anyone, but an eye-catching memorial service will definitely leak out the news of my father’s death. I still need time to strengthen control over the few stores my father possessed or else old enemies will take them.”

Nan Feng went back to inspecting for clues while inwardly shaking his head at this ‘filial’ son. Was it not dishonorable to not hold a proper funeral because of money?

“What were the results of the autopsy? What did he die by? What position was he in when the body was found? How long ago? What were his facial expressions at the time of his death? Who discovered his body? Who…”

While Nan Feng and Yu Ling scoured the room for any possible traces that the killer left behind, Lu Xin patiently answered all of Ye Tian’s questions.

Soon, Ye Tian formed a scenario in his head.

It was another normal night when Lu Ming was in this room working on confidential matters of the Lu Clan as he always had. During the night he was killed, around three weeks ago, the killer had somehow approached Lu Ming and shot him in the neck. For a soul stage like Lu Ming to be unable to react, the killer must either have higher cultivation or a sneak attack. Judging the shocked expression on Lu Ming’s face, the killer must’ve used the latter.

The rank three inscribed arrow, which can even rip through elemental cultivators like a joke, also shows the weakness of the killer as a stronger cultivator would’ve just directly killed Lu Ming. One could also not dismiss that the killer could’ve done so to mislead the investigators

Lu Xin was currently a prime suspect as he had been the one to discover Lu Ming’s corpse, he was weaker than Lu Ming, and he could cause the unsuspecting Lu Ming to die with a shocked face. There was almost every reason to believe that Lu Xin had killed Lu Ming for the store deeds or mysterious item, but it was just too obvious, almost as if the murderer wanted to shift blame.

Until concrete evidence could be discovered, there would only be suspects for now.

Lu Xin first left while citing that he had something to do. Clearly, the store deeds’ occupied a higher place in Lu Xin’s heart than his father.

The three rigorously searched throughout the room for any possible holes that the killer entered by. There were no tunnels. There was nothing.

Ye Tian looked at the door.

“There’s only one way in. One way out.”

“Then there must be someone who had seen the killer, right?” asked Nan Feng with Yu Ling, at the side, nodding in agreement. There was logic in Nan Feng’s question. Through the questioning, the squad had learned that guards, in sets of 2 guards per group, were stationed and rotated while guarding outside the door.

“If it was that easy then this case would’ve already been solved. The problem is that the guards could be working together with the killer or the guards were knocked out or the enemy got through another way. Though, I do think that it could lead us to a clue.”

***

Before Lu Xin had left for the stores, he had instructed the same servant, who opened the gate doors, to tend to the trio’s needs. Ye Tian took advantage of this to have all the rotated guards lined up for interrogation. There were around 20 of them who are in the blood stage and bone stage.

The purpose of a guard was for more an alarm rather than an actual troop. An enemy could easily wipe out the guards before being killed off by the soul stage Lu Ming.

It took a few hours of interrogation and the sun had set before the squad was done with the guards.