The Azure Mountain

Chapter 82: A Ghost That Won't Go Away

Tongji Street lay in darkness.

On any other night, the street would have been bustling. Merchants would have hired theatrical troupes to entertain guests behind closed doors, carriages lining up in long queues, coachmen crouching against walls gambling and boasting.

But tonight Tongji Street was deathly quiet. A good number of merchants had slipped away overnight, terrified of being seized by the Secret Spy Division and paraded as captured Jing Dynasty spies.

Inside the abandoned estate, seven figures in black stood around Shopkeeper Yuan's corpse, bamboo hats on, still as statues.

While Chen Ji pondered, the others didn't dare utter a word, afraid of disrupting his train of thought.

What had happened at Welcoming Guest Restaurant was still vivid in their minds. Working alongside a new superior with such penetrating observation, the agents hardly dared breathe — it was as if a boulder sat on their heads.

Chen Ji gazed down at Shopkeeper Yuan's body, which hadn't been moved, and said: "Every wound targets a vital point. The method is identical to the killer at Welcoming Guest Restaurant, confirming both scenes are the work of the same person. Among Jing Dynasty operatives, does anyone favor a short blade? Assassins who use a short blade as their weapon of choice are uncommon."

Xi Feng spoke up quickly: "One man is extremely skilled with a short blade. Colleagues in Jinling attempted to apprehend him, but he killed over a dozen agents and escaped by diving into the Qinhuai River... We suspect him as well. The only thing is, he never previously demonstrated the ability to break blades, which gives us some uncertainty."

Chen Ji asked: "How long ago was the Jinling incident?"

Xi Feng replied: "About three years ago, I believe."Chen Ji nodded: "Three years is a long time. It's entirely possible that the man developed new techniques in the interim. For now, designate him as the primary suspect and issue a wanted poster."

'Gui is heading back to the Jing Dynasty anyway. Having him take the heat from the Secret Spy Division for a while shouldn't be a problem.'

Xi Feng looked troubled: "We can't. This person operates with extreme caution. During the last confrontation, he wore a green-faced, fanged mask — no one saw his face. So a wanted poster is out of the question. However, Honorable Jin Zhu has personally led men outside the city to set up checkpoints on all major routes. They won't escape."

Chen Ji's heart sank. So Jin Zhu had gone outside the city to man the roadblocks himself.

He asked casually: "Are you certain the Jing operative has already left Luo City?"

Xi Feng thought about it: "We can't be certain, but the Jing operative's primary objective was to steal our dynasty's firearms. Now that they've succeeded, their most urgent priority would be to deliver the weapons back to the Jing Dynasty. Staying here serves no purpose."

What Chen Ji didn't yet know was that after he had used three firearms in a single night, an express dispatch marked for maximum urgency was racing toward the capital and the border army. The matter was being treated with the utmost gravity. Every overland and waterway route heading north was being sealed off one by one — the Jing operatives must not be allowed to carry the firearms back across the border.

In reality, the Jing Dynasty hadn't obtained any firearms at all. But everyone believed they had, and the Secret Spy Division was blocking every northbound path with its highest-level protocols.

Thank heavens Gui hadn't chosen to go directly north. Otherwise, by now they'd have walked straight into the net.

Chen Ji crouched beside Shopkeeper Yuan's body, thinking about his next move.

First, he absolutely could not go after Gui and Wu Hongbiao. If those two were actually caught, he'd go down with them.

Second, he had to apprehend some Jing Dynasty agents. If he didn't, Jin Zhu wouldn't let him off the hook.

But who should he go after...?

Wait — he knew exactly who to target.

Chen Ji asked in an even tone: "Xi Feng, when the body was found, was he already naked? Is there any evidence that could identify him?"

Xi Feng crouched beside Chen Ji and spoke in a low voice: "The man was a practitioner from Bitter Awakening Temple in the Jing Dynasty — certainly a Jing spy. His other identifying details are still under investigation... There are no other leads for now."

Chen Ji frowned: "No other leads? What have you all been doing today?"

The agents felt the pressure double. Xi Feng hastily explained: "Today we brought every resident of Tongji Street in for visual identification, one by one. Not a single person on the entire street recognized him. The property belongs to a Hui merchant and has been abandoned for over a year... We even brought in nearby middlemen and neighborhood chiefs for identification. We searched all day — every possible avenue."

The corpse seemed to have materialized out of thin air. Within a radius of several li, not a soul recognized the dead man.

It wasn't that the agents hadn't tried. There simply were no leads left.

Chen Ji said calmly: "In this freezing weather, the man couldn't have walked out of the house naked on his own. The killer must have stripped him after the murder. Why strip the clothes? Because the clothing was distinctive enough to reveal his identity."

Xi Feng asked: "Sir, have you thought of a way to track him?"

"How many Secret Spy Division agents are still in Luo City?"

"Honorable Jin Zhu left forty-two men to hold the city."

"Bring them all in. Seal off the Eastern Market," Chen Ji rose slowly. "Since deduction has reached a dead end, we'll use the blunt approach — elimination. This person was obviously living in Luo City. His disappearance can't have gone completely unnoticed. Summon the neighborhood chiefs and middlemen from the Eastern Market. Using the entire Eastern Market as our search area, investigate all missing persons. Whoever vanished without explanation — that's our dead man."

Hundred Deer Pavilion had no Shopkeeper Yuan anymore. That single thread led straight to the shop.

Once he confirmed Shopkeeper Yuan was missing, he'd have justification to raid Hundred Deer Pavilion, arrest everyone for interrogation, and give Jin Zhu a satisfactory result. Copying the answer key was straightforward — there was no way to get it wrong.

Chen Ji knew full well that Gui had stripped Shopkeeper Yuan precisely to prevent the Secret Spy Division from tracing things back to Hundred Deer Pavilion and cutting off the Military Intelligence Division's revenue stream.

But what did that have to do with Chen Ji? Hundred Deer Pavilion was stocked with ginseng — exactly what he needed.

......

......

Deep in the night, the neighborhood chief was dragged from his home by agents. He followed them, trembling head to toe, terrified that these living reapers might swallow him alive on a whim.

Xi Feng carried a torch and led the agents in knocking on shops one by one, methodically searching each premises.

Alarmed cries erupted from previously silent shops. Sleeping proprietors and clerks, without time to throw on padded jackets, were mercilessly hauled into the street, shivering in the cold.

Xi Feng and his men wore expressions of grim menace. Only after the neighborhood chief confirmed no one was missing from a particular shop would the agents let the owners and clerks return to bed.

Chen Ji followed the agents in silence. His mind wasn't on these irrelevant shops. He was simply waiting as they worked through them, drawing steadily closer to Hundred Deer Pavilion.

To avoid a cornered Jing operative fighting desperately inside Hundred Deer Pavilion, he kept himself at the very rear.

But just as they were about to reach Hundred Deer Pavilion, Chen Ji felt something was off... It was too quiet.

The people inside Hundred Deer Pavilion seemed utterly unaware of what was happening outside. No one was trying to flee. It was as unremarkable as any ordinary shop.

The next moment, Xi Feng stepped forward and knocked on Hundred Deer Pavilion's front door.

Inside, someone unbarred the door.

Creak. The door was pulled open from within. A young clerk, bleary-eyed, squinted against the torchlight and held a palm up to shield his face: "Who is it? What do you want in the middle of the night?"

Xi Feng said nothing, but the neighborhood chief stepped forward with his household register, smiling: "There's been a homicide over on Tongji Street, but we can't identify the victim. We're going door to door checking for missing persons. If you could please call everyone in the shop out — once we've verified, we'll be on our way."

"Oh..." The young clerk turned and called into the building: "Shopkeeper! The neighborhood chief is here with some people. They want to check if anyone's missing from our shop."

Every muscle in Chen Ji's body went taut. He was ready to fight or retreat at an instant's notice.

And then — he froze.

A portly figure emerged from inside, leading five clerks to the doorway, and said with a broad smile: "Neighborhood Chief, these are all the people in our Hundred Deer Pavilion. Everyone's accounted for."

Shopkeeper Yuan!

Chen Ji almost thought his eyes were deceiving him. But he checked and double-checked — the corpulent figure before him wore a grand crimson satin robe and a golden-beam cap. If it wasn't Shopkeeper Yuan, then who?!

For a moment, he felt almost dizzy.

Inside Hundred Deer Pavilion, Official Gui had slit one Shopkeeper Yuan's throat. On Tongji Street, Chen Ji himself had slit another Shopkeeper Yuan's throat. And yet now, inside Hundred Deer Pavilion — there stood yet another Shopkeeper Yuan!

The man seemed impossible to kill. Like a ghost that refused to pass on, no matter how many times you tried to banish it.

Chen Ji wanted to grab the man by the collar and demand: 'Are you alive or dead?!'

He stared hard at the man's fair-skinned face. He knew it was a new human-skin mask. After the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Division learned that Official Xin had died, they must have immediately sent a replacement — complete with a mask prepared well in advance.

Should he expose the mask right now?

But if he did — how would he explain to Xi Feng how he knew the man wore a human-skin mask? Xi Feng was no fool. The agents might even realize that Chen Ji had been targeting Hundred Deer Pavilion the entire time!

At the Hundred Deer Pavilion entrance, the neighborhood chief turned to Xi Feng: "Sir, Hundred Deer Pavilion is one of my Eastern Market's longstanding businesses. They've always had exactly these people. No discrepancies."

Xi Feng looked at the new Shopkeeper Yuan: "These days Luo City isn't safe. If you notice anything unusual, report it to us immediately."

Shopkeeper Yuan smiled amiably: "Of course, of course. We're all law-abiding citizens of our Luo City. Assisting in the capture of criminals is simply our duty."

Xi Feng grunted, gave a simple reminder to "lock your doors and windows," and moved on to the next shop.

In the end, Chen Ji said nothing. He turned and followed Xi Feng, leaving the new Shopkeeper Yuan and his clerks standing calmly behind the threshold of Hundred Deer Pavilion — expressions placid, betraying neither joy nor sorrow.

Just then, an agent came running from a distance. Once he drew close, he reported to Xi Feng: "Sir, while we were checking Li's Tailoring Shop with the middlemen, we obtained an important lead. The shop's owner says that last night, when he was outside Red Clothe Lane and saw our blockade, he spotted four armed Jianghu men sneaking out from behind Red Clothe Lane. These people might be Jing Dynasty operatives!"

Chen Ji's heart sank — could those be the four who had abandoned the Prince Heir and Baili?!