Chapter 28: Official

The accumulation of glacial currents within this inner prison, year upon year, surpassed even Chen Ji's wildest imaginings. He had not anticipated such a vast and formidable collection of these ethereal ice streams!

He strode through the corridors of the inner prison, witnessing one after another of these glacial currents merge into his being. The four lamps of furnace fire, which sealed his dantian, flickered precariously, threatening to extinguish.

The gray-white glacial currents, like flood dragons, roared unheard in the dim confines of this inner prison. They were akin to wronged souls, long trapped within a cage, filled with an unwillingness that sought to devour Chen Ji whole.

In this mystical realm, they possessed a strength capable of overriding all authority and power, yet now, little by little, it was being stripped away.

Chen Ji could feel the chill emanating from within his five viscera and six bowels, but in Yun Yang's presence, he dared not betray any hint of abnormality.

However, just as he and Yun Yang passed a prison cell, he spied upon the wall the base of an oil lamp, intricately engraved with an eight trigrams array diagram.

Chen Ji's mind immediately recalled the eight trigrams array diagrams beneath the oil residue lamps he had seen upon descending the stairs earlier. One lamp signified one prison; as long as the lamp burned, the soul within would not perish!

Swiftly, he plucked the oil lamp from the wall and held it in his hand!

In an instant, the glacial currents within his dantian retreated like a receding tide.

Chen Ji exhaled slightly, and Yun Yang, surprised, turned back. "Why do you take this lamp?"

He replied, "This inner prison is too dim; I am somewhat unaccustomed."

Yun Yang sneered, "I would not have expected someone who dares to bargain with me to still be afraid of the dark?"

Chen Ji offered no reply, his thoughts solely focused on a single question: Could it be that after death, the glacial currents do not dissipate? Judging by the sheer quantity of glacial currents just now, they had undoubtedly accumulated over a very long period.

Even if the Secret Agent Department were heartless and ruthless, they could not have slain so many people in such a short span.

It must be the effect of the eight trigrams array diagram!

Was the Inner Minister perhaps concerned about the possibility of being entangled by the wronged souls of the numerous individuals he had ordered killed, and thus sought someone to employ the eight trigrams array diagram to detain all these souls within the inner prison? This would explain the accumulation of so many glacial currents over the years.

Chen Ji calmed his breathing. "Lord Yun Yang, please let me examine the files. To uncover clues, it is not always necessary to seek them from the current case. Perhaps past cases still conceal many secrets."

Yun Yang motioned to a secret agent. "Give them to him!"

When the secret agents lifted the files, they were surprisingly contained within more than ten large wooden boxes.

Chen Ji casually took one book from within, perusing it while simultaneously surveying the inner prison.

He approached a prison door and inquired, "Cell number Jia Twenty-Seven, previously held the Assistant Magistrate of Yu Prefecture, Liu Yaozu? Where is he at this moment?"

The secret agent pondered how to address this masked youth before him, hesitating for a moment before speaking in a low voice. "This… my lord, if the file states 'released,' then he walked out of the inner prison alive. If nothing is written, then he died inside."

Chen Ji confirmed that Liu Yaozu had indeed died within the inner prison four years prior.

He then moved to another prison door. "Cell number Jia Twenty-Eight, held the Chief Artisan of Luo City's Craftsman Supervisor, Chen Mingzhuo?"

"Also deceased."

Thereafter, Chen Ji ceased his inquiries, merely reciting silently in his heart:

"Cell number Jia Fifty-Two, Prefect of Gui De Prefecture, Xu Jiawen, dead."

"Cell number Yi One, Magistrate of Shang Cai County in Ru Ning Prefecture, Tian Hailong, dead; Assistant Magistrate of Shang Cai County, Xu Dehong, dead…"

Carefully counting, some cells held the remains of one individual, others several.

The more Chen Ji checked, the more his heart grew alarmed. The file in his hand felt like the Book of Life and Death from the Hall of King Yan.

He flipped through the files again. This inner prison had also once confined some Jianghu practitioners and official travelers hidden within the markets, but the cells where these individuals were housed had not witnessed glacial currents surge forth.

He inhaled deeply, finally grasping the rule governing the glacial currents.

Those who could produce glacial currents after death had but one commonality: they were officials!

……

……

Buried deep within the earth, the inner prison resembled a vast graveyard, the final resting place of countless individuals who had met their demise in this perpetual darkness.

This was not the Jianghu, but the burial ground of both the Jianghu and the court.

Chen Ji stood before a prison cell, an open file in his hand, the dim prison cage before him.

He spent roughly an hour, finally completing his review of the files for the Jia and Yi division cells. The remaining Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui divisions remained untouched, and indeed, there was no longer a need to examine them.

Chen Ji even dared to boldly surmise that the glacial current obtained on that late star garden night was indeed from Jing Fei's fetus, for imperial bloodlines were inherently superior to others from birth.

At this moment, standing within this oppressive inner prison, Chen Ji felt a sense of the absurd.

His path of cultivation actually stood in opposition to the entire Ning Dynasty. To cultivate, he required the demise of officials and those of imperial blood!

The Ning Dynasty, from the Emperor down to the lowest official, wielded all the power within this realm.

And he, was he to be its adversary?

Yun Yang was not mistaken; one indeed could not let others know the nature of one's cultivation path… it was truly perilous.

Yun Yang sat by a table, legs crossed, cracking melon seeds. Seeing Chen Ji halt in the corridor, lost in thought, he asked, "Found any clues?"

Chen Ji emerged from his contemplation. "Not yet."

Yun Yang frowned. "I personally made a round trip to fetch you, wasting an hour, and now I have waited another hour, only for you to say there are no clues?"

Chen Ji had come for the glacial currents and the files. Both had been obtained, yet he could not simply depart.

He pondered for a moment before asking, "How did Liu Shi Yu die? Did you all kill him?"

Yun Yang shook his head. "No, he could not endure the torture and hanged himself."

Chen Ji furrowed his brow. "Is his corpse still in the inner prison?"

"Yes, would you like to see?" Yun Yang's interest was piqued. He tossed the melon seeds in his hand onto the table. "I will lead you."

Yun Yang led Chen Ji deeper into the inner prison, descending several more flights of stairs, passing through multiple levels, before finally reaching the deepest area. Chen Ji could even hear the sound of an underground river flowing.

"Here, just inside, there is only Liu Shi Yu's corpse," Yun Yang said, holding a torch as he entered.

Liu Shi Yu appeared to be around thirty years old, with a slender build and fair skin. His face was deathly pale, his tongue protruded, and he had suffered bowel and bladder incontinence.

These were the typical signs of death by hanging, with no apparent abnormalities.

Chen Ji, upon seeing the corpse, held his breath, a sense of unease settling in his heart.

Yun Yang mocked, "I thought you were truly omnipotent. How can you not even bear to look at a corpse?"

Chen Ji composed himself. "Lord Yun Yang, being able to indifferently examine the corpse of your own kind is not something to boast about… Liu Shi Yu did not commit suicide; he was murdered to silence him."

Yun Yang shook his head. "This time you are mistaken. I have killed many people, so on this matter, I possess more experience. All his death signs are consistent with hanging: I have assisted many in hanging; a hanged person's face is deathly pale, with a protruding tongue and bowel/bladder incontinence. There is no error in this. You might think he was strangled and then hung? No, a strangled person's face turns crimson purple. I am also familiar with this."

"Theoretically, Lord Yun Yang's words are not incorrect," Chen Ji nodded.

"Hmm?" Yun Yang did not understand.

Chen Ji explained, "But all of this can be faked."

The cause of death in hanging is the blockage of the neck arteries, leading to a lack of oxygen in the brain.

Due to the instantaneous blockage of the arteries, the veins can temporarily still function, resulting in a hanged person's face being deathly pale, whereas a strangled person's face will exhibit a crimson-purple hue.

The individual who killed Liu Shi Yu to silence him must have understood these principles and thus fabricated the illusion of death by hanging. The tongue can be forced out, acupuncture can induce bowel and bladder incontinence, and precisely strangling the carotid sinus can lead to a deathly pale face.

The opponent was a professional killer skilled in faking suicide, but they overlooked one crucial detail: the feet.

Chen Ji explained, "In a hanged person, the toes are drooping, almost perpendicular to the ground. After two hours, rigor mortis will set in, and the position will be maintained even if the person is taken down. But look at Liu Shi Yu; before he was strangled, his legs had kicked out forcefully during his struggle, his two feet fixed in different directions."

Upon hearing this, a thoughtful expression appeared on Yun Yang's face. "Is that so… Let's go back to the Jia level and bring a condemned prisoner over. We'll try it once and see!"

Chen Ji and the others returned to the upper level. He watched as two secret agents dragged a condemned prisoner forward.

That condemned prisoner, even before being hanged, had already wet himself.

Yun Yang sat by the table, cracking melon seeds while ridiculing, "This is a civil official of our Ning Dynasty. On the surface, they appear iron-willed, but in reality, they cannot withstand a single blow."

Chen Ji hesitated. "Lord Yun Yang, what crime did he commit?"

"Colluding with the enemy and selling out the country, privately forging household registers and travel documents for Jing Dynasty spies," Yun Yang turned his head and instructed the secret agents, "Hang him from the ceiling! I want to observe!"

Chen Ji wanted to speak, yet ultimately chose to remain silent.

The next moment, the secret agents used a rope loop to hang the condemned prisoner by the neck from the ceiling, kicking away the stool from beneath his feet.

In a matter of seconds, the condemned prisoner became completely still.

Everyone waited thus, the corpse suspended before them. Yun Yang, however, continued to drink tea and crack melon seeds as if nothing had happened, as if the person hanging was not a human being, but a pig.

Chen Ji merely focused on flipping through the files, using this to pass the time.

Two hours later, the secret agents took the corpse down from the ceiling. Indeed, just as Chen Ji had said, the toes were straight.

Yun Yang clapped his hands in praise. "Previously, I only hung people up, but never took them down afterwards. I never noticed this detail!"

Chen Ji calmly stated, "Someone sought to silence Liu Shi Yu, which indicates there is still a bigger fish behind him. The Liu family is not the only one colluding with the enemy; the second branch's Liu Mingxian and the main branch's Liu Mingde are both under suspicion."

Yun Yang frowned. "Liu Gun will return to Luo City in a few days. In this situation, without evidence, provoking the Minister of Personnel would only be inviting trouble. You wouldn't be trying to trick me into a pit of fire, would you?"

In the room, Chen Ji held the oil residue lamp, the firelight flickering in his eyes. "How could that be? I am still counting on Lord Yun Yang to promote me. Just now, Lord Yun Yang also spoke of the harm inflicted by Jing Dynasty spies on our frontline warriors. Why then, at this moment, do you seek only self-preservation?"

Yun Yang sighed. "One must always learn from their mistakes. Before, I only knew how to kill. I have only had this position of Twelve Zodiac for half a year; it would be a greater pity to lose it now… Official life is not easy."

Chen Ji looked at the other man, sincerely asking, "Lord Yun Yang, you and Lord Jiao Tu are skilled in killing. The Inner Minister is extremely clever. Why would he send you to do things you are not skilled at?"

Yun Yang was puzzled. "Yes… Could it be that the Inner Minister originally hoped to leverage our killer instincts to eliminate the Liu family? The Inner Minister sent us here simply to kill people, so what should I do…"

He subconsciously picked up the teapot, wanting to pour Chen Ji a cup of tea, but then reconsidered. No, he had only ever poured tea for the Inner Minister!

He placed the teapot back on the table. "But even knowing that someone killed Liu Shi Yu to silence him, it is still very difficult to gain leverage against the Liu family. How should I proceed with the investigation?"

Chen Ji shook his head. "Currently, there are too few clues; I have no good suggestions either. However, Lord Yun Yang, do you not find Old Master Liu's death highly suspicious? The moment he died, you all immediately fell into a passive position. My master was invited to diagnose him, but his carriage broke down halfway, and he never saw Old Master Liu."

A thought flashed through Yun Yang's mind like a clap of thunder. "Old Master Liu is very likely not dead!"