Chapter 1: Homicide

“Name?”

“Lu Xingzhou.”

At the Town Demon Department, Sheng Yuanyao stopped writing and looked up at the other person with a somewhat strange expression. “That name might not bring good luck, is it your real name?”

Lu Xingzhou smiled slightly, his voice magnetic and pleasant. “It sounds quite cultured at first listen, and there are many people with the same name. Speaking of which, I’ve even seen people name their children ‘Shang’ or ‘Wang’. Why take it so seriously, girl?”

Sheng Yuanyao’s eyes shifted slightly, as if the character “Shang” made her think of something. She examined Lu Xingzhou again carefully.

This man was dressed in white with a silver belt, his face as beautiful as jade, refined and elegant. Even though Sheng Yuanyao was used to seeing young masters from the capital, she felt that this one’s handsomeness and temperament were enough to be ranked among the best. He was truly a stranger on the road like jade.

Unfortunately, he was a cripple and currently sitting in a wheelchair.

Sheng Yuanyao had little seniority in the Town Demon Department, but her eyesight was still good enough to see that this man’s leg muscles were atrophied, which couldn’t be faked.

He was a real cripple, and had been for a long time. What a pity.

She composed herself, her expression becoming serious again. “Age?”

“Nineteen.”

“From your accent, you’re a local from Xia State?”

“Indeed, I was born here. At the age of eleven or twelve, I followed my family south to visit relatives and only returned half a year ago.”

“You entered the He family’s old residence around noon yesterday. What were you doing there?”

“I am an Alchemist, and naturally I also understand how to treat illness.” Lu Xingzhou answered calmly. “Master He of the He family has been suffering from some heart angina recently. He invited me to treat him. I’ve been going there once a day for the past half month. You can inquire casually and find out.”

“Did you come again today for the same reason?” Sheng Yuanyao stared intently at Lu Xingzhou.

An invisible sense of pressure came over him. Lu Xingzhou’s heart stirred slightly, and sweat quickly beaded on his forehead under the pressure. He said somewhat reluctantly, “Of course. Master He’s treatment isn’t finished yet, and it was agreed upon. Girl, what is the meaning of bringing me to the Town Demon Department and asking these inexplicable questions?”

Sheng Yuanyao withdrew the pressure and said coldly, “First, that wasn’t Master He. The entire He family has already moved to the capital. The only one left in the old residence is an old steward.”

Lu Xingzhou was astonished. “I didn’t know that. I didn’t know the He family before. Seeing his demeanor, I thought he was the old master.”

Sheng Yuanyao stared at him intently. “Secondly, late yesterday afternoon, the old steward He was found dead in the house by someone.”

Lu Xingzhou immediately shook his head. “His heart angina was almost cured, he wouldn’t have died suddenly.”

Sheng Yuanyao slammed the table. “Stop pretending to be confused!”

“Girl, are you suggesting that he was killed?” Lu Xingzhou was not intimidated by her and his expression returned to calm. “I entered around noon yesterday, stayed for only a cup of tea, and then left. I had already returned to the mountain by the afternoon. No matter what you’re implying, it has nothing to do with me.”

Sheng Yuanyao continued to stare into Lu Xingzhou’s eyes.

She was bluffing Lu Xingzhou, wanting to see his reaction. In reality, old steward He was only missing. The one who died was another servant—all the servants of a certain age in the He family’s old residence were dead, while the young servants under ten years old were all alive. The situation was very strange.

According to the testimony of the surviving servants, the murder indeed hadn’t occurred when this Mr. Lu left. And all the deceased had their throats cut with a sharp weapon, not poisoned, so the possibility of a delayed-onset poison could be ruled out.

Sheng Yuanyao glanced at Lu Xingzhou’s leg again. She thought to herself, such a large He residence, occupying over ten hectares. The deceased were in the east courtyard and one west wing. To pick out specific people to kill without anyone knowing and without arousing suspicion from others, this kind of skill didn’t seem like something the cripple in front of her could do.

Furthermore, that would require being very familiar with the layout of every part of the He family residence, which an outsider who only went straight to the main house to treat illness would find difficult to achieve.

From Lu Xingzhou’s reaction, he didn’t seem to know what had happened either. From every angle, he didn’t seem very suspicious. Instead, the missing old steward He was the most suspicious.

However, this person was at least the only outsider who had entered the He family’s old residence on the day of the incident. No matter how light the suspicion, it couldn’t be completely overlooked. He still needed to be investigated carefully.

Sheng Yuanyao finally said, “You said you were on the mountain in the afternoon, how can you prove it?”

Lu Xingzhou laughed. “When I left, the elixir I was refining was almost ready. I was anxious to return to the mountain. Girl, if you don’t mind following me back to the mountain to ask, you can also help me push the wheelchair.”

Sheng Yuanyao didn’t push it herself. She called two burly subordinates to help push and followed behind them all the way out of the Town Demon Department.

She was an official sent out from the capital for experience. She came to Xia State to earn some money for two years and then go back… She didn’t expect that just a few days after taking office, before she even got familiar with her subordinates’ faces, she would encounter two or three major cases involving human lives. She felt both annoyed and stimulated. Annoyed because this murderer was slapping her in the face; stimulated because wasn’t solving cases the reason she chose this line of work?

This was frontline gossip!

The cultivation atmosphere in Daqian was strong. Xia State was far from the capital and considered a remote mountainous area, but it was not poor. This was because various medicinal materials were produced here in large quantities, making it one of the medicinal material bases of the Daqian country. There were many large and small sects, families, and gangs here, all relying on the sale of medicinal materials to thrive.

Some of them were not satisfied with being medicinal material dealers, so they also cultivated or hired alchemists to refine finished elixirs and sell them. Lu Xingzhou came to Xia State half a year ago and, for some unknown reason, was hired by the Danxia Gang on Danxia Mountain in the east of the city as the chief alchemist. Since then, the Danxia Gang, which was originally just a medicinal material dealer, began to have the ability to refine elixirs, and its development was quite gratifying.

It's not that most cultivators in the world can’t refine a few elixirs, but truly excellent ones are hard to find and have very high status. This Lu Xingzhou said he was an eighth-grade alchemist. His rank was formally certified by the Alchemy Department. This rank was already considered very good in remote areas, and at this age, he was even more full of potential.

Lu Xingzhou was only a nineteen-year-old youth. Although alchemy didn’t require very high cultivation, it was a profession that required a lot of experience. It was already not easy to enter a rank at a young age, let alone enter the eighth grade.

Danxia Mountain was not far from the He family’s old residence. In fact, it was just the mountain next to the mountain behind the He residence. This was probably also the reason why old steward He invited Lu Xingzhou to treat him. The mountain wasn’t high, mainly slopes, so Lu Xingzhou could go up and down in a wheelchair, although it was quite strenuous.

In the early years, Danxia Mountain was relatively primitive, with lush trees. There used to be a dilapidated Taoist temple on the mountain top. Later, the Taoist temple was abandoned, and this mountain was occupied by the Danxia Gang, who built a rather large station and planted medicinal herbs all over the mountain. The air was pleasant.

Following Lu Xingzhou into the Danxia Gang’s main alchemy room, a huge alchemy furnace came into Sheng Yuanyao’s sight. The alchemy furnace was already slightly trembling, and the fragrance of the elixir was faintly overflowing. Lu Xingzhou’s earlier words were not deceptive; a newly refined elixir was indeed about to come out.

Sheng Yuanyao’s gaze fell on the little Taoist boy beside the alchemy furnace. The little Taoist boy was about five or six years old, with a chubby round face, a round Taoist bun, and was exquisitely cute like carved jade. At this time, he didn’t seem to notice someone at the door. He rubbed his small hands and carefully took a stick to poke the bottom of the alchemy furnace, quietly poking out several roasted sweet potatoes.

The fragrance of roasted sweet potatoes overpowered the fragrance of the elixir.

Sheng Yuanyao’s mouth twitched.

These sweet potatoes were things that had only been newly brought in from distant seas a few years ago…

The boy who was tending the fire for alchemy was secretly roasting sweet potatoes with the alchemy fire. If this affected the formation of the elixir, wouldn’t Lu Xingzhou beat him to death?

“Ah, Master!” Only then did the little Taoist boy notice Lu Xingzhou at the door. He jumped up, ran over quickly, holding a roasted sweet potato, and laughed, “Master, eat sweet potato.”

Sheng Yuanyao felt this was simply a face-to-face provocation, but Lu Xingzhou only rubbed the little Taoist boy’s chubby face dotingly. “You eat. I’ll look at the elixir first.”

“Oh…” The little Taoist boy glanced at Sheng Yuanyao and then offered her the sweet potato again. “Pretty sister, eat? It’s very fragrant.”

Sheng Yuanyao smiled and shook her head, indicating she wouldn’t eat. Lu Xingzhou smiled. “Girl, wait a moment. This elixir is about to come out. I must finish the final steps first. If you want to inquire about others, please feel free.”

He was not a criminal after all, and Sheng Yuanyao didn’t say anything. She watched him sit cross-legged beside the alchemy furnace to adjust the alchemy fire. After adjusting for a while, he struck an auxiliary fire incantation towards the bottom of the furnace.

The furnace fire suddenly flared up, and the edge of the furnace lid emitted a slight rosy glow. The fragrance of the elixir fully overflowed.

Sheng Yuanyao observed the alchemy with great interest. Even the two Town Demon Department subordinates who had followed Sheng Yuanyao over subconsciously held their breath, witnessing the scene of the new elixir coming out.

The furnace lid slowly floated up, and nine elixirs automatically floated out, rotating leisurely above the alchemy furnace.

Sheng Yuanyao’s heart pounded wildly. “Eighth-grade Qi-Benefiting Elixir, nine pills in one furnace, all of extremely high quality… This unexpectedly still took over an hour and was refined only by a boy tending the fire! It seems like an eighth-grade elixir, but an eighth-grade alchemist absolutely cannot reach this level. He is fundamentally not an eighth-grade alchemist, he is a seventh-grade! Very possibly even a seventh-grade upper tier!”

If entering the eighth grade at nineteen was considered full of potential, then what about a nineteen-year-old at the seventh-grade upper tier?

That was a talent one in ten thousand, the kind that major forces would fight over! Why would such a person hide in a remote place like Xia State, working for a ninth-rate gang like the Danxia Gang?

Just as she was thinking this, she saw Lu Xingzhou quietly pocket three elixirs into his sleeve, leaving only six rotating in the air, making it look as if only six had been refined in this furnace. The little Taoist boy reached out his small hand and quietly took away one more.

Lu Xingzhou glared at him, and the little Taoist boy gave a compensatory smile, then touched each of the remaining five elixirs.

Sheng Yuanyao watched with wide eyes as part of the medicinal power of the five extremely high-quality elixirs was absorbed by the little Taoist boy, their efficacy dropping in grade, becoming high-quality products.

The little Taoist boy showed a comfortable expression.

Sheng Yuanyao: “…”

A frivolous voice came from the door. “Heh, refining a mere eighth-grade elixir, only five high-quality products in one furnace… Smoke, is your Danxia Gang’s chief alchemist only this level?”