Star Trace Gate

The following evening, at the Martial Monk's Residence.

Niu Dali, wearing a light pink cardigan, was sitting alone in the inner hall, enjoying a sumptuous dinner.

On the octagonal table, braised pork knuckle and roasted lamb leg steamed and sizzled with oil; four carefully prepared cold dishes were also sprinkled with fragrant chili oil, making them look incredibly appetizing. Niu Dali, a descendant of martial arts masters, had an enormous appetite. Normally, the sixteen dishes on the table—eight cold and eight hot—would just be enough to fill him up.

But recently, Niu Dali has been plagued by bad luck, and his official career is in jeopardy. As a result, he has lost his appetite. Today, he barely ate anything and just silently drank his wine, seemingly deep in thought.

"Tap tap...!"

A series of light footsteps sounded, and a woman with a beautiful figure and charming face walked up to Niu Dali, carrying freshly warmed wine: "Master, drink less...!"

"nothing."

Niu Dali seemed to be deep in thought. After waving his hand slightly, he subconsciously looked at the woman.

The moment he turned his head, he saw the woman's attire and was immediately terrified, shouting angrily, "What the hell are you doing?! Are you trying to die?!"

Beside the octagonal table, the woman was dressed in a snow-white mourning dress, standing next to Niu Dali as if she were keeping vigil. Her face was unpainted, her small face looked extremely pale, and she even had a sad and miserable expression.

Anyone who is having dinner and suddenly sees such a depressing and horrifying scene would be furious, let alone... Niu Dali is not a good-tempered person to begin with.

He suddenly stood up and slapped her across the face.

"Snapped!"

A sharp crack echoed in the hall. The woman was knocked off her feet, and the wine jug in her hand flew out of her hand, crashing to the ground and spilling a large puddle of wine.

"I'm not dead yet, and you're already wailing like a baby?!" Niu Dali pointed at the other person and cursed, "I think you've really had enough of the good life... Tomorrow I'll sell you to a brothel!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...!"

The woman in mourning clothes collapsed to the ground, sobbing pitifully, "Niu Dali, you have no conscience... You were after my brother's martial prowess and ability to lead troops, which is why you forced me to be your concubine. Now, he's been framed by villains and died in this Beifeng Town, and we can't even find his body... Not only do you not avenge him, but you're also selling me to a brothel! How can you be so inhuman... I don't want to live anymore, I don't want to live anymore...!"

Niu Dali was stunned by the retort, and stood there angrily, not knowing how to respond.

The woman before him was Lu Zhao's older sister, and one of his more favored concubines. Today, she was serving him meals dressed in mourning clothes; her intention was clear: to subtly remind Niu Dali that he was not only her brother-in-law but also his superior. "If you don't take charge of this matter," she implied, "I'll make trouble for you every day, trying every possible way to make you miserable."

Although Niu Dali was a violent, ruthless, and capricious man, he treated his own people relatively well; otherwise, so many monk soldiers and generals wouldn't have been willing to fight alongside him in the north and south.

So, faced with this woman throwing a tantrum, he really had no good solutions other than uttering a few harsh words. Because she was not only his wife and concubine, but also his brother's older sister; given these two layers of affection, he naturally wouldn't actually sell her to a brothel…

"Gudong!"

Frustrated, Niu Dali grabbed his wine glass, tilted his head back, and took a large gulp before whispering, "Don't be reckless. I told you before... the current situation is beyond my control. I have superiors, and I have to follow orders... I can't act rashly. Otherwise, forget about your brother's revenge, even you, your mother, and your sisters in the backyard... might all be living in the same coffin."

"You'd better take off your mourning clothes right now and go back to the backyard and bend over. I'll avenge your brother Lu Zhao sooner or later. Let me tell you this: only one of us, me or Moro, will leave Northwind Town alive, understand?"

"Then you...?!" The woman looked worried when she heard him say it was so serious.

"You're just a woman, you don't know anything, so stop asking questions. Go on, go on...!" Niu Dali was too lazy to explain to the other person.

"Then you must be extremely careful...!" Hearing his promise and seeing his worried face, the concubine lost her desire to cause trouble. She simply helped herself up and silently poured Niu Dali a cup of wine.

After serving her man, she gracefully prepared to leave the main hall.

As the sun set, bathing the area outside the palace in golden light, Niu Dali looked at his woman's slender waist and immediately waved his hand, shouting, "You don't need to take off your mourning clothes so quickly... Tonight I'll go to your room, have a heart-to-heart talk with you, and personally help you take them off...!"

The woman remained silent for a while, then quickened her pace and walked away.

"Sigh." Niu Dali sighed, then sat back down in his chair and drank his wine with a troubled mind.

Ren's guess was correct; he was indeed plotting with the "legendary spirit cat." However, what the other party didn't know was that this spirit cat was neither Niu Dali's backer nor a familiar superior. It had only appeared suddenly before Niu Dali received the transfer order from Tianzhao Temple.

At that time, Niu Dali's situation of being transferred back to Tianzhao Temple for questioning was extremely precarious; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he might not return. The whistleblower's letter not only detailed his embezzlement of public funds but also revealed that Moro, the head of the inner court, had secretly sabotaged him. Therefore, if he returned, he would never be reinstated and would be reassigned to Beifeng Town.

He's not clean to begin with. Even if he didn't embezzle a huge amount of Star Source from the underground treasury, he's still skimmed off the top from other places several times over. If Tianzhao Temple investigates seriously, he'll definitely be finished.

Therefore, Niu Dali was truly in a desperate situation. If he fled to avoid punishment, not only would his subordinates be implicated, but his entire family living in Tianzhao City would also be implicated. However, if he didn't flee, and his actions were exposed upon his return, he would at best be dismissed from his post and imprisoned, and at worst, he could be executed…

Just when he was caught in a dilemma, the legendary spirit cat suddenly appeared, not only seeing him in person but also pointing him in the right direction.

He told Niu Dali that there was no need to return to Tianzhao Temple. Instead, he could stay along the way for a few days and wait for things to change in Beifeng Town before making a surprise return to clean up the mess and atone for his crimes.

When Niu Dali first heard this suggestion, he was definitely skeptical. In fact, he was so annoyed that he cursed at the other party: "Have you been playing with mice too much and can't tell if you're a cat or a tiger? No matter what, you're just a rogue cultivator from another race who has become a spirit... How much do you have to influence the decision of Tianzhao Temple?!"

The mysterious spirit cat did not offer any explanation, but replied before leaving, "When you set off tomorrow, you will receive an order from Tianzhao Temple that you do not need to return for the time being."

This confident remark left Niu Dali somewhat uneasy. He spent the night investigating information about the spirit cat, only to discover, to his surprise, that there was indeed a legend of a spirit cat in Beifeng Town. However, after careful analysis, he realized that this spirit cat could not possibly be connected to Tianzhao Temple, much less influence its decisions…

Just as he set off for Tianzhao City and left Beifeng Town, he received an order from Tianzhao Temple that he did not need to return immediately, and the content of the order was almost exactly the same as what the spirit cat had said.

This completely baffled Niu Dali, whose intelligence was already limited. The appearance, features, and aura of the spirit cat were almost identical to those of the local legend, yet this spirit cat, from any perspective, had absolutely no connection to Tianzhao Temple…

Therefore, this matter has always puzzled him, and he can only keep comforting himself: "Perhaps that dead spirit cat has really returned to the world, and has been recruited by Tianzhao Temple, intending to take revenge on the people of Beifeng Town...!"

In short, Niu Dali felt that this spirit cat was "powerful and mysterious," so he was very afraid of and couldn't figure out his new backer, which made him very uneasy and anxious.

"Slurp...!"

Niu Dali sat in the hall and drank another full glass of strong liquor. He then prepared to use the spirit communication jade disc that the spirit cat had given him tonight to arrange another meeting with the other party and test its strength again.

"Tap tap...!"

Just then, a series of hurried footsteps sounded, and a guard in full armor rushed in, shouting in a panic, "Sir, something terrible has happened!!! Wang Anquan has been poisoned in the prison, and his condition is extremely critical!"

"Huh?!" Niu Dali suddenly stood up: "Damn it, are all the prison guards in the Heavenly Prison good-for-nothings?! So many big things have already happened, don't they know to be more vigilant and strengthen their guard? How could they let Wang Anquan get poisoned at this time... What use are these idiots to me?! Notify the prison commander who was in charge of guarding Wang Anquan just now, kill them all!"

"My lord, please don't be angry. But now... what should we do with Wang Anquan? He's seriously poisoned, and the prison can't do anything about it," the guard immediately reminded him.

"Oh!"

Niu Dali, in a fit of rage, smashed the wine cup with a single blow, then strode out with a dark expression: "Bring Wang Anquan to the Martial Monk's Mansion. Notify all the fourth-rank physicians in the clinic to come here and prepare to treat Wang Anquan. Oh, and by the way, when you send people to pick him up, be extremely careful... send at least half a battalion, led by you personally. Oh no, I'll lead it myself, right now."

"As ordered!"

After the guard got up, he followed Niu Dali out of the courtyard, and at the same time carefully reminded him, "Sir, there is another urgent matter, and I don't know whether I should say it or not..."

"Stop being so mysterious at a time like this! Just spit it out!" Niu Dali responded rudely.

“My lord,” the guard said astutely, “Wang Anquan’s treason case is being presided over by three chief officials. If he is suddenly poisoned in the prison and recovers quickly, that would be fine… but if he is crippled or dies… then your situation… will be very awkward.” He continued, “Think about it, we’ve always prevented outsiders from seeing Wang Anquan, not even the two chief officials, Moro and Zhenyi, have ever had contact with him. If something happens to him now, and those two team up to smear you… then you’ll be in a situation where you can’t clear your name no matter what.”

“If they use foul language and say that you already know some hidden truths from Wang Anquan, and then you kill him to silence him, that would be troublesome.”

"Tap!"

Upon hearing this, Niu Dali abruptly stopped in his tracks, then immediately turned around and asked, "When the people from the Heavenly Prison came to report the news, did you ask whether anyone else in the Heavenly Prison knew about Wang Anquan's poisoning?"

The guard clasped his hands in a fist salute: "My lord, this is precisely what I'm worried about. It's currently dinnertime, and the prison is teeming with shift guards and busy servants... Wang Anquan's poisoning attack just happened to coincide with someone delivering food to the prison... So, while the news isn't exactly common knowledge, most of the people in the prison are certainly aware of it. This matter... will likely be difficult to conceal from Moro's eyes and ears, so... even if we don't inform him, he will find out. And if something happens to Wang Anquan, and he, as the presiding judge, is unaware, he will surely turn around and accuse you...!"

Niu Dali, his face grim, clenched his fists and said, "Send someone to inform Moro and Zhenyi to come to the Martial Monk's Mansion. Tell them the truth, directly state that Wang Anquan has been poisoned, and have them come here to discuss it together."