That night, Shen Hao returned to Li City again, accompanied by ten ordinary soldiers from the Garrison.
He found General Flag Chen Tianwen in the Garrison Office, shut the door, and nobody knows what they talked about. Then, without even waiting for dawn, he turned around and hurried back to Five Rams City.
But anyone familiar would notice that, on this round trip, the ten Garrison soldiers following Shen Hao seemed to have changed their faces.
...
It was the fifth day since the Qi Family massacre.
Shen Hao didn't go anywhere. He stayed in the temporary resting room he'd picked inside the Qi Mansion, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his eyes closed, meditating on his daily lessons.
Shen Hao never dared to slack off in his cultivation; this was the foundation of his life in this world. If he wanted to rise further in Xuanqing Guard, he couldn't do without the word "cultivation." At his current stage, these two characters were just as important as his investigative skills.
So no matter how busy he got, every day Shen Hao would squeeze at least one hour to practice Qi Refinement. "Constant effort over time" was an iron law for any cultivator—nobody could escape it.
But today, Shen Hao felt something very different.
"This... Why does the True Qi I gain after one circulation feel so much stronger?!"
"Why does circulating True Qi through the chest's meridians bring a surge of heat, and why does it make the True Qi in the meridians expand severalfold?!"
"What is going on?!"
The amplitude of True Qi increase after each circulation in his body was more than three times greater than before!
You know, Shen Hao's cultivation technique was called the Great Five Elements True Qi Talisman. The name sounds powerful, but in reality, it's just an ordinary Yellow Level Technique. For him to reach the Qi Refining Sixth Layer in eight years with just a Yellow Level Technique was already considered gifted, but this bizarre situation had never happened before.
After repeatedly sensing for more than half an hour, Shen Hao made a discovery.
All of the True Qi was strengthened at the chest meridians by a sudden surge of heat, as if transforming one form of energy to another.
This immediately reminded Shen Hao of that strange tattoo on his chest. Because the heat wave that enhanced his True Qi was clearly surging from the area of that tattoo into his meridians.
"This tattoo is strange and inexplicable, yet it's been on me for eight years. Why is something finally happening now?"
"If something's unusual, there's definitely some hidden cause! But nothing strange has happened lately... Wait, could it be!"
Shen Hao jolted inside. How could he forget last night's sinister and bizarre event? He had swallowed an Evil Core alive!
Could it be that swallowing the Evil Core activated some ability in the tattoo, causing this phenomenon?
It sounds far-fetched, but that was the most plausible explanation Shen Hao could think of right now.
"If I think about it, maybe it really was this tattoo that compelled me to swallow the Evil Core yesterday!" Shen Hao recalled that, before swallowing the Evil Core, his chest inexplicably grew hot, then that overwhelming feeling of "hunger" erupted, and only then did he swallow it. And now, as the True Qi circulated through his chest, it was strengthened again for no apparent reason—the connection between the two was hard to dismiss.
But as for actually proving his theory, Shen Hao had no way for now.
Fortunately, the sudden tripling of True Qi gain was a huge boon for Shen Hao. The only concern was whether it would bring any hidden dangers.
At this moment, Shen Hao felt both excited and uneasy inside.
Unable to figure it out, he decided not to dwell on it. He'd just take things step by step. Shen Hao pressed down his anxiety and began running his True Qi again. The speed at which it grew—three times faster than before—made him feel as if he were living in a dream, light as air.
...
For the next two days, Shen Hao stayed in the Qi Mansion and didn't leave. Other than meals and such, he remained holed up in his room, as if bothered by the deadlock in the case.
On April 3rd, there were three days left before the deadline Chen Tianwen had given Shen Hao. But Five Rams City had already been turned upside down by frenzied Xuanqing Guard and garrison soldiers, yet there was no news of Xiao Zhongliu—nothing in the city or any of the farms nearby.
"Keep searching! If thirty miles turns up nothing, expand the range to sixty miles! I refuse to believe he's vanished!"
Shen Hao's furious roars echoed through the Qi Mansion day and night, especially at night—traveling far into Five Rams City. Every time, the Xuanqing Guard Soldiers throughout the city would tremble, and the garrison soldiers would be tormented as well.
...
By April 4th, Shen Hao finally showed his face. He looked pale, his brows drawn tight—clearly strung out from too much pressure.
This time, Shen Hao went straight to the Five Rams City Government Office, personally coordinating garrison soldier deployment. He wanted to mobilize seventy percent of the garrison force to assist Xuanqing Guard in expanding their search.
No one knew exactly what happened in the office, but judging from Shen Hao's ashen face as he exited, his request was probably denied.
After all, mobilizing seventy percent of the garrison off-duty during peacetime far exceeded the Garrison Office's limit. Even in the face of Xuanqing Guard, they wouldn't dare agree without a direct token from Li City Guard Station. Otherwise, they wouldn't dare let Shen Hao command such a large force even at the risk of their lives.
Maybe out of anger, or maybe blinded by rage, Shen Hao returned cursing to the Qi Mansion and immediately ordered Wang Jian to lead all Xuanqing Guard Soldiers to further expand the search, even without additional support from the garrison.
"I don't care! We've already torn up half of Five Rams City, so extend the search to sixty miles outside the city! Dammit, I refuse to believe there's not a trace! Defensive posts? Ignore them. Would the culprit dare come back now?"
Despite Wang Jian's objections, Shen Hao sent out all the Warriors left to guard the Qi Mansion, leaving only ten ordinary soldiers to watch the doors.
This was nothing short of a desperate gamble.
That night, Shen Hao stayed in his room, apparently meditating. Only ten soldiers patrolled outside. Compared to other nights, it was eerily quiet.
Suddenly, at a corner of the courtyard wall where moonlight couldn't reach, a pitch-black shadow oozed up from the ground, rising more than three meters tall. It had limbs and a vaguely human form, with a pair of crimson eyes glaring cruelly from its head.
The massive black figure crept swiftly along the ground, hugging the wall. In the blink of an eye, it slipped into the central courtyard.
The central courtyard should have been guarded by Xuanqing Guard Soldiers, but they'd all been sent elsewhere by Shen Hao during the day. It was deep into the night—the remaining ten soldiers were patrolling, and the courtyard had neither bright nor dark posts.
"Hiss!"
The black shadow let out a low, triumphant hiss, then hugged the wall to the right corner of the courtyard, approaching a giant water vat.
The water vat was usually kept for fire emergencies and often had ornamental koi. The shadow reached out three claws, hugged the vat, and twisted it forcefully.
Three turns to the left, one to the right, half a turn left, five turns right.
"Ka-cha!"
A mechanical click sounded. Instantly, a wave of mana rippled from the bottom of the vat, and a blue-green chest—about one meter square—suddenly appeared out of thin air on the water's surface. It was as if a hole had been torn in space for it to slip through.
Just as the shadow was about to reach for the chest, a mocking chuckle echoed from the darkness in the right corner.
"Tsk tsk, so it's a Sky Splitting Array, hidden in the water, no wonder I couldn't find it after days of searching."
Shen Hao stepped out of the darkness, hand resting on his blade.