Chapter 223

Chapter 223: Already Brought to Justice

Rumble, rumble.

Before Xia Hou Li could finish, five streaks of lightning bloomed in midair.

Inside the Imperial Palace, Consort Yu paced her room in a fret. The Daoist master had said that today they could gather the souls of nine unborn boys, refine them into a Conception Pill, and after she swallowed it, in a few months she would give birth to a young prince.

Suddenly, thunder rolled over the city.

Strangely, there were no bolts in the clouds.

Consort Yu clutched her chest as a wave of dread washed over her: “What is this? Why does this thunder feel so terrifying?”

Yu Zhi Yi looked at the charred body lying before her, her eyes calm, neither sad nor glad.

Some people are cold and selfish to the bone. The male demonic cultivator had been like that; Xia Hou Li was the same. Their partnership was led by her. He lusted after beauty and needed young, pretty cultivation vessels to raise his power. Xia Hou Li envied well-born girls whose lives were smooth and rich; she wanted to kill every woman happier than she was and absorb their resentment to cultivate.

Each victim was wrung dry of value before dying in misery.

Yu Zhi Yi took out the case files she carried and drew lines through several unsolved murders of women. Those cases had been the work of this depraved pair. Over the years they had drifted from place to place, choosing areas without Daoist temples or Buddhist monasteries to commit their crimes. In well-governed regions alone there were nearly ten cases; in more remote places, unrecorded victims were beyond counting.

Putting away the files, Yu Zhi Yi walked toward Constable Song’s house.

By then, Constable Song was already tied up tight, yellow talisman paper stuck on him. Surrounded by fellow constables and subordinates who usually got along well with him, he could not understand why they were treating him like this: “Let me go. I haven’t done anything! Take me to see my lord, I want to see my lord!”

The constables looked guilty as they answered: “Boss Song, this is all under Official Yu’s orders. Please don’t make it hard for us.”

One added with a shiver: “Also, you don’t know how scary you looked when we got close just now.”

When they had approached the bed, Constable Song’s eyes had snapped open. There was none of his usual kindness in them, only a sly, crooked smile, his mouth pulled at an inhuman angle that made him look like a villain of the worst kind. Luckily, the lead constable had reacted fast and slapped a yellow talisman on his forehead; only then did Constable Song’s gaze clear.

Constable Song was stunned: “Official Yu told you to seize me? I looked scary?”

[What a joke. When I was young I was one of the best-looking men for ten villages around.] Even now, though older from years on duty, his body had not gone soft. Lines of age sat on his face, but they did not make him ugly; if anything, they added a bit of mature charm. [I’m not being narcissistic or bragging,] he thought, [even if I don’t catch the eyes of young misses anymore, I’m hardly scary, right?]

Constable Xiao Li spoke with a bitter smile: “Chief, it’s true. You were like a different person. That look, that aura… if your body hadn’t been warm, we would have suspected you’d turned into a ghost.”

Constable Song fell silent: “…”

He was about to speak when Yu Zhi Yi’s clear voice sounded from outside the door: “That’s because he was possessed.”

Xia Hou Li kept many yin creatures. Besides the pregnant women hidden in the scabbard, she had set one to watch and control Constable Song. If anything seemed off, that thing would take over his body. Just like the time he took Yu Zhi Yi to see the corpses-he had been possessed then as well, but the scabbard had absorbed the yin, so she had not noticed.

The constables sagged in relief when they saw Yu Zhi Yi: “Official Yu!”

Their expert had arrived. Heaven knew how frightened they had been by Constable Song’s earlier expression.

Yu Zhi Yi peeled the yellow talisman from Constable Song’s forehead. The moment it came off, everyone saw a blur-something black flashed past their eyes. Before it could get away, Yu Zhi Yi’s hand shot out; she seized it, kneaded the shadow into a ball, then slapped another talisman onto it.

A burst of golden light flared. With a shriek that was not human, the black shape vanished.

Constable Song swallowed: “…There… really was a ghost…”

The others stared at him: “…” So after all their explaining, he hadn’t believed a word.

Yu Zhi Yi told them to untie him, then picked up his scabbard: “It’s over. The killer has been brought low; her corpse is outside. Her lair is a ruined temple beyond the city walls. There is plenty of evidence there.”

She shook the scabbard lightly: “This scabbard was tampered with. Ordinary people who carry it will have bad luck; the unlucky could even die. I’ll take it for now and return it after I’ve dealt with it.”

At the word die, Constable Song shook his head so hard it rattled like a toy drum: “I don’t want it, I don’t want it. Official Yu, please take it. No need to give it back.”

Yu Zhi Yi thought for a moment: “All right. When this case is fully settled, I’ll give you a new scabbard.”

Xia Hou Li’s hideout was as gloomy as she was. Besides tools for her crimes, the constables found a patch of freshly turned soil nearby. They dug it up and uncovered the fetuses taken from the pregnant women’s wombs. That confirmed Xia Hou Li as the murderer.

As for why she targeted ordinary folk, though she was dead, the constables found a notebook in her clothes filled with evil spells. One was especially vile: the Seizing Qing Technique. It required nine pregnant women who died with hatred in their hearts.

With motive and evidence in hand, the case was solved.

While the Court of Judicial Review celebrated the end of this thorny case, Consort Yu in the palace suddenly clutched her belly and groaned in pain: “It hurts… it hurts!”

The palace attendants panicked and rushed to fetch the imperial physician. Before the head maid reached the doors, the pain stopped. Not only that, but Consort Yu felt a gentle warmth in her belly, almost pleasant. She stroked the curve of her stomach, thinking hard. Could the master have succeeded?

That seemed the only answer. Joy bloomed across her face as she pictured a prince’s first cry and her return to favor.

Then, the next day, she heard the news: in the capital, an evil female cultivator who had slaughtered countless innocents had already been brought to justice.