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With a muffled sound, the entire mural suddenly moved towards them, and only stopped slowly after it moved about half a meter away.

"..." Su Qinchao looked at the mural that had moved closer to him with a confused look on his face.

The first time he saw such a mechanism door, he thought the mural would open in two halves from the middle.

No wonder they couldn't find any gaps in the murals before, he thought it was because of the exquisite painting techniques...

"General, it looks like an altar in there. It's empty and there's no one inside!" Yuan Ji didn't think too much about it. He ran in, took a look, and ran back.

"Altar?" Su Qin glanced inside in surprise before leading everyone in.

He didn't expect to find the Taoists smoothly. Since they were able to create such a huge mechanism as the mural, it would not be surprising that there was a secret passage in the secret room leading to the outside.

This secret room is about thirty steps on each side and is shaped like a very standard square.

Nine huge torches, each more than ten feet high, surrounded the nine-step platform made of white jade in the middle, illuminating the secret room as bright as day.

"Is that an alchemy furnace?" Prince Xiang pointed at the tilted three-legged bronze tripod furnace on the high platform.

At this time, a sticky reddish-brown medicinal juice was slowly flowing out of the cauldron and dripping onto the ground along the white jade platform.

"Plop! Plop!" As the medicine splashed on the ground, the air was suddenly filled with a strange sweet fragrance.

"What's that smell? Why is there a faint fishy smell?" The Prince of Xiang smelled it, immediately covered his nose in discomfort, and stepped back.

"It should be a mixture of blood and medicinal herbs." Su Qinchao replied, walked over and dipped some medicinal juice from the white jade platform.

He put it under his nose and smelled it, and now he suspected that this was the work of the Dangxiang's Samsara Sect.

Although Taoism knows how to make elixirs, it never uses human blood as medicine. Humans are the most intelligent creatures in the world, and adding human blood would be considered an evil method, and Taoism is most averse to this.

"How disgusting! They actually use human blood to make elixirs!" Prince Xiang took a few steps back in disgust.

Until he accidentally stepped on a movable floor tile and suddenly stopped.

Click!

"What did I step on?" Prince Xiang turned around stiffly and asked Su Qinchao.

"Oh, it's okay, I just opened the secret passage." Su Qinchao gestured for him to look at the hole that had just appeared next to him.

It was a spiral stone staircase that coiled around the cave wall and extended downward until it slowly disappeared into the unknown darkness. No one knew how deep or far it was below.

"General, should we chase them?" Several other soldiers followed Yuan Ji and surrounded him.

"What does the prince think?" Su Qinchao did not respond to them directly, but looked at the Prince of Xiang who had just moved away from the mechanism.

"Let's go down and take a look!" Prince Xiang was actually a little curious. He wanted to know where this secret passage, which was built behind his back, led to!

"How about this arrangement? I will lead the way, you and your attendants will stand in the middle, and the rest of the soldiers will cover the rear!" Su Qinchao thought about it and expressed his idea.

"All right, let's go!" Prince Xiang waved his hand indifferently.

...

In the dark passage, Su Qinchao held up the torch he had brought from the altar and led everyone carefully down the stone steps.

The stone steps went up and down endlessly for more than half an hour before I could vaguely see some light coming from the front.

"We're actually here!" Seeing the familiar scenery outside, Prince Xiang walked past Su Qinchao and was the first to push aside the vines at the entrance of the cave and walked out.

Outside, they saw endless stretches of emerald green sorghum, which appeared in front of them like waves against the wind. How could they investigate this? Su Qinchao looked at the sorghum outside that was taller than a person and felt a little discouraged.

They actually followed the secret passage in the temple and walked to the outskirts of Wannian County. The wide view and the impenetrable sorghum really didn't give him any chance to find any clues...

"General, are you still looking?" Looking at Su Qinchao's somewhat depressed face, Yuan Ji came forward.

"Let's go back to the county government office!" The only clue now was the female corpse. He had to go back to Wannian County and watch the judicial officer and the coroner perform the autopsy on the spot.

...

After Su Qinchao brought his men back to Wannian County, before he even reached the county government office, he learned on the street that the children had already returned home. This was extremely similar to what his brother had experienced in Huzhou.

There should be a close connection between the two, or even that the same group of people may have committed the crime.

"General, are we still going to the county government office?" Yuan Ji looked at Su Qinchao's slightly gloomy face and asked hesitantly.

Now that the missing children have returned and the clues have been cut off, is there any need to continue investigating? They were only here to assist in the investigation.

"Why not go? There are still many mysteries about the female corpse that have not been solved." His brother didn't find any clues before, so he had to let the matter go.

Now that they have the body of the Dangxiang woman in their hands, they can follow the places where she had been active and the people she had contacted to slowly collect useful clues, and sooner or later they will be able to solve the case.

Moreover, with these Taoists playing on such a large scale, they will commit crimes sooner or later, so it is a good idea to make more preparations.

However, when they returned to the county government office and saw Li Jishi, who was still standing in front of the incense table, holding the imperial edict in his hands and looking gloomy, they realized that things might not develop as they imagined.

"What did the imperial edict say? Did it order the Jinwu Guards to return to Chang'an immediately and stop investigating the case immediately?" Su Qinchao walked quickly to Li Ji and raised his hand to take the imperial edict in his hand.

"They also took away the corpse of the Dangxiang woman." Li Ji raised his head and looked at Su Qinchao dimly, allowing him to take the edict and read it.

"Did the angel explain the reason?" Su Qinchao read the contents of the edict at a glance, handed it back to Li Ji, and his expression gradually turned from gloomy to bright.

"No." Li Ji shook his head. He had been investigating for so many days without sleep and food. He finally got some clues, but suddenly he was not allowed to investigate anymore. He felt very depressed.

"Okay, someone will solve the problem!" Su Qinchao pointed to the sky and reminded him implicitly.

The emperor is so diligent and cares about his people, how could he not get to the bottom of this?

It was only because they saw that they had delayed for too long and still had no progress, and had also missed a lot of official business, that they decided to investigate in secret. Those secret guards knew much more than them.

Hearing Su Qinchao say this, Li Ji finally got rid of his depression and his complexion improved.

 …

It was on the second day after Su Qinchao returned to Chang'an that he took advantage of the little free time after his shift to visit Xingxian at the county lady's residence.

Fortunately, it is now approaching midsummer and the closing time of the city gates has been postponed by half an hour, so there is still plenty of time.

"Why are you here just now!" Seeing him coming, Li Yi hurriedly pulled him across the garden and ran straight to Xingxian's yard.

"What's wrong?" Although Su Qinchao was obediently being pulled by her, he was still a little surprised.

"What's wrong? He's dying!" Li Yi rolled his eyes at him unhappily:

"That day you were late, and he stood at the gate waiting for you all night. No matter who tried to persuade him to leave, he refused to leave. The next morning, he returned home covered in dew and looking hopeless. He never spoke to anyone again and refused to eat."

"Didn't I send someone to deliver a verbal message?" Su Qinchao frowned. The order from above that day was really too urgent. He only had time to ask the palace soldiers to help him take a verbal message to the county lord's mansion.

"He has to believe it!" As they spoke, the two of them had already entered Xingxian's yard and stood outside his house.

"Okay, go in!" Li Yi pushed him in and closed the door for him.

It was not convenient for her to go in, otherwise Qi Min would be so nauseated if she knew about it. The vinegar jar could not even accommodate a male mosquito.

When Su Qinchao was pushed in by Li Yi, he felt as if he had entered a deserted room.

Although the decorations in this room are mostly in warm colors and it is indeed June outside, which is a hot time of the year, there is still a hint of chill in this room.

"Xingxian?" Because Xingxian didn't like being served, Su Qinchao had to lift the curtain of the inner room himself and walk in.

Originally, Su Qinchao thought that what Li Yi said just now was somewhat exaggerated. Everything was fine last time at the princess's mansion, and Xingxian was even smiling at that time.

Unexpectedly, when he entered, he was almost frightened by Xingxian's current appearance.

At this time, Xingxian was curled up on the couch, unconscious. Her skinny body could not even be covered by a thin quilt. She looked so fragile that it seemed as if she could be crushed with just a hand.

"Xingxian!" Su Qinchao involuntarily slowed down his pace and slowly approached. When he got close, he found that the person on the couch was still trembling slightly. He didn't know what he was dreaming about. Even in his sleep, he was crying.

But even so, Xingxian was still stunningly beautiful. Although her palm-sized face was so thin that it was almost unrecognizable, the sadness and beauty that emanated from her bones still made people love her.

(It’s the feeling of Nakamori’s famous dishes, you know, right?)