Star Trace Gate

The various government offices in Xuwang Village are not too far from each other. The patrol hall is located on the east side of the clan hall, and the two halls are separated by only one street.

Ren Ye changed into a new set of clothes in the small room of the clan hall and then rushed to the patrol compound. It was already past midnight, but the entire compound was brightly lit and bustling with activity. Many Black Qi-level night patrolmen were either preparing to rush to the crime scene, verifying the identities of the three Yu brothers, or questioning "eyewitnesses" who had been called in temporarily.

He walked through the noisy courtyard and came to the main door of the patrol hall, where he saw the gentle and lovely Sun Qingxue standing outside waiting.

“Sister Sun…!”

He called out sweetly.

Sun Qingxue turned around and smiled slightly: "Brother Huang, you're awake!"

"Yes, I just woke up not long ago. After explaining the reason to the four clan leaders, they asked me to come here to record a statement." Ren Ye looked at Sister Sun, who was thin and beautiful, and immediately bowed deeply to express his gratitude. "If it weren't for Sister Sun's help tonight, I'm afraid I would really be in great danger... Sister, I owe you my life!"

Sun Qingxue smiled reservedly and said gracefully, "I was originally going to your house to invite you and your niece to a banquet at our Sun family. Since I stumbled upon this matter by chance, how could I not help?! Father often said that our Sun and Huang families are old friends, so Huang, please don't be so reserved."

Old friend? How come I didn't know... Ren Ye complained inwardly, then thanked him again: "No matter what, I will always remember this kindness you showed me tonight."

"Before tonight, I never imagined you could possess such magical powers... Brother Huang, you were too low-key before." Sun Qingxue praised sincerely, "The combat power you displayed today is so great that even among the younger generation of Xuwang Village, few can match you."

Ren Ye scratched his head deliberately when he heard the compliment, revealing a simple and honest look: "Sister is not an outsider, I... I won't hide it from you. In fact, I really don't know where my powerful strength comes from."

Sun Qingxue was slightly stunned: "Don't know?!"

"Yes...!" Ren Ye followed up on his previous lie and explained in detail: "Actually, when you woke me up, I felt an extremely powerful force reviving. This might be because my soul sensed the desperate situation of life and death...!"

After listening to his explanation, Sun Qingxue looked thoughtful. "You possess a powerful force, perhaps related to your inheritance. I guess only father and the others know the secret... But no matter what, the resurgence of this force is a good thing for you."

"Haha, I don't know either, whether this power will appear again in the future...!" Ren shook his head helplessly.

"This power must have a source. I believe it will appear again." Sun Qingxue showed a very sunny and positive smile, and her words were full of encouragement.

"I hope so."

"shut up!"

Just as the two of them were standing outside the door and talking quietly, they suddenly heard a stern scolding coming from the main hall of the patrol hall.

Ren was stunned for a moment, then he immediately realized that the scolding was an angry shout from Zhao Haochen.

The main hall's door was tightly shut. Zhao Haochen, dressed in white, stood behind the desk, his face sullen as he cursed, "You three are all Black Qi realm cultivators, and have been patrolling the hall for decades. Yet, facing a thief who has nowhere to flee and has already been through a bloody battle, you can't even capture him alive?!"

"Why did you kill him?! Before you killed him, did you ever consider that the thief had been fleeing to the north, and we were the only patrolmen in the north! We didn't catch him, and we killed him on sight... If all three thieves are dead, the clue will be broken. What will outsiders think of us? What will the clan hall think of us?!"

Zhao Haochen usually has a gentle and humble image, but today he was really a little bit broken, and his words were filled with a sense of frustration that he was about to be inexplicably blamed.

"Sir, I'm reporting to you... That... Zheng Yu showed signs of fighting to the death when he saw the three of us blocking his way. Even if we didn't kill him, he would have died because of Hua Dao... We can't just let him drag us three along with him just to capture him alive..." The night patrolman standing at the front said with a tone full of grievance, "What's more, before I intercepted him, I didn't know there were three suspects tonight, and the other two were already dead. We were so rushed in such a short time."

Upon hearing this explanation, Zhao Haochen raised his eyebrows and asked, "Who can prove that Zheng Yu transformed into a Daoist being when he encountered you three? Who witnessed that you three were forced to kill him?!"

The questioning echoed throughout the hall, and the three night patrolmen were immediately speechless.

"No one can prove what happened back then. It's all just you three telling your own story. How can you convince anyone?" Zhao Haochen slammed the case, angrily saying, "How am I supposed to explain this to the clan hall? How am I supposed to write the case file?"

"Sir... It's clearly written in the laws of my Xuwang Village that if a night patrol encounters an emergency case and an unidentified thief, the first priority is to capture the thief alive. However, if he is in danger, he can fight with all his strength and kill the thief. What the three of us did today is in line with the provisions of the law. This... what else is there to explain?" A night patrolman couldn't help but retort.

Zhao Haochen was silent for a long moment before he said, hands behind his back, "What you three did today is indeed in compliance with the laws of Xuwang Village. However, your hasty execution of the only surviving thief has resulted in the severance of the clues... This behavior is also abnormal. From this moment on, the three of you are suspended. For the time being, you can only move within the patrol hall compound, and you three cannot see each other. You must also be prepared to be questioned by the clan hall, the law hall, and the punishment hall at any time. Do you understand?"

"Sir, this...what did we do wrong?!" The night patrolman in the front also had some anger in his tone.

"If there hadn't been a jailbreak, tonight's events would have been understandable. But with the jailbreak already happening, and all three halls believing that Number 79 is behind the scenes in Xuwang Village, your unusual behavior today naturally arouses suspicion." Zhao Haochen stated without question, "Since you three have nothing to hide, why are you afraid of an investigation? This decision is made by the patrol hall and is not negotiable. Go! From now on, the three of you must not meet each other again."

The three night patrolmen held their breath for a long time, but in the end they did not dare to refute. They just clasped their fists and bowed their heads and said, "As you command!"

"go with!"

Zhao Haochen waved his hand impatiently.

Outside, Sun Qingxue saw the cursing subside before turning to look at Ren Ye and saying, "The jailbreak case hasn't been solved yet, and tonight something so serious has happened. Zheng Yu was likely to be captured alive, but the three night patrolmen were so hasty in killing him... Putting these events together inevitably makes people overthink things. Especially with the Punishment Chamber... Zhao Haochen previously insisted there was a traitor in the Chamber and stripped them of their right to participate in the investigation. Since the patrolmen made such a huge mistake tonight, the Chamber will naturally have something to say... Young Master Zhao is so unlucky! This is the first time I've seen him so angry."

"Yes, this is the first time I've seen him get angry." Ren nodded slightly.

As soon as he finished speaking, the tightly closed door of the main hall was pushed open, and the three night patrolmen who had previously killed Zheng Yu walked out with extremely grim expressions. Then, followed by their colleagues, they walked towards the backyard in a daze and were formally taken into custody.

As soon as they left, a night watchman from the hall came out and called out to Sun Qingxue and Ren Ye, "The night watchman wants to see you. Please come in."

"it is good!"

The two nodded and walked into the inner hall.

Not long after, Ren Ye and Sun Qingxue separated and each went to a small room to record their statements.

Young Master Zhao was directly responsible for questioning Ren Ye. He walked into the small room with a bad look on his face, followed by a clerk in charge of recording. He nodded slightly at Ren Ye.

"Brother Zhao...!" Ren Ye responded politely.

"You really have a surprise for me." Zhao Haochen forced a smile and bent down to sit on the chair in the center of the small room. "I discussed enlightenment with you before, but I didn't expect... your divine power might even surpass mine! I'm just showing off my skills in front of an expert."

Upon hearing this, Ren Ye waved his hands repeatedly, "How can my humble magical powers compare to yours?! What happened tonight was truly an accident...!"

"Then tell us about the accident in detail. Don't leave out any details." Zhao Haochen replied, then looked up and called out, "Bring in some tea and snacks. Let him eat while we talk."

He has always been gentle to Ren, and even in formal occasions, he did not use very official language.

After a while, Ren Ye drank some water while recounting what he had said to the four clan leaders.

After listening to this, Zhao Haochen nodded slightly: "If that's the case, then you're in a very tight spot tonight."

"Yes, if it weren't for Sister Sun's help, if the powerful force in my body hadn't revived... I would definitely not be able to see you today." Ren also showed an expression of lingering fear.

Zhao Haochen believed Ren Ye's claim of a resurrected "mysterious power." The path of cultivation emphasizes accumulation and exploration, and Ren Ye clearly lacked this process. Therefore, it made sense that the powerful fighting ability he displayed tonight was achieved through the use of some mysterious magical weapon or some power hidden within his body.

He didn't ask any further questions, but simply brought the topic back to the case: "First, tell me, when you and Sun Qingxue were chasing the last thief tonight, did you notice...any unusual behavior from the three murderous night patrolmen?"

"They didn't do anything unusual...!" Ren Yezi couldn't possibly say anything bad about the patrolmen in front of the person in charge, because such behavior was too damn Tang Dynasty.

No matter how Zhao Haochen scolded the three night patrolmen, that was their own business. If any outsider said anything more, it might be considered ignorant.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Haochen sighed after hearing Ren Ye's answer and said, "Brother Huang, there's no need to hide anything when you talk to me, and there's no need to be cautious. You have to understand, if there's really something wrong with those three night patrolmen, I'll be the one who suffers... So, every truth you tell me is a help to me. If I'm kept in the dark, it's like taking the blame for someone else's misfortune, do you understand?"

Upon hearing this, the Little Bad King frowned slightly and replied cautiously, "I really don't think there was anything wrong with those three night patrolmen. It's just... at the end of the battle, those three thieves were all focused on fleeing north, and Sun Qingxue and I gave them our all, but upon arriving, the last thief was dead. It was a very quick process, but it's possible that the last thief did the same thing before he died, as the other two did the same before they died...!"

No matter how frank Zhao Haochen was, Ren Ye, like a riddle teller, spoke of ambiguous "facts." He emphasized that Zheng Yu had been trying to escape north, and that Sun Qingxue and I had been chasing him quickly, only to find him dead upon arrival. There was nothing else unusual.

The three night watchmen weren't even mentioned in this statement, yet it felt overly fast and rushed. It wasn't an accusation, more a statement of intriguing facts.

In this case, he is not the only one who says this, because Sun Qingxue would say the same thing as long as she is not lying.

This kind of rhetoric neither made things difficult for the three night patrolmen and the hall patrolmen, nor put Zhao Haochen in a bad light, but it gave some hints to the higher-ups, making it impossible for the three halls to ignore this important detail.