CH 99.2

Bai Lixin shrugged his shoulders and surveyed the room.

So Lord Li took 50 taels of gold. It was quite a lot, but it was pitiful compared to his worth.

Li Yuan said that Lord Li made a fortune from selling the fire fox skin, so it could be seen that this information was not very reliable.

There had to be something deeper.

At least one of these two people was lying.

Dijia, “It is said that you, Lord Li, and Taoist Qing were close. Why?”

Was it love?

Bai Lixin’s brain had this sudden thought, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Seeing Bai Lixin’s expression, Dijia raised his eyebrows: what’s wrong?

Bai Lixin: nothing, nothing!

Boss Huang, “Taoist Qing is a Taoist priest. It’s not the three of us that befriended him; it was Taoist Qing that approached us.”

“Three years ago, Taoist Qing found us and said that we were haunted by evil spirits. If we don’t act in time, we will be met with misfortune.”

“We didn’t believe it at that time, but within a few days, the madam of the Li residence died. Lord Li cherished his life, and rather than waiting and seeing, he began to communicate with Taoist Qing from time to time.”

“He seemed quite afraid and once a month, he would go begging for something and come back with peace of mind. He spent a large amount of time in the Qinglian Temple.”

“But he had reason to be a little afraid. His wife and her maids were gone.”

Bai Lixin, “Did Taoist Qing tell you what evil spirits were targeting you?”

Boss Huang, “Yes, it’s a fox demon.”

He sighed, “But all I did was sell, what crime is there ah? Injustice has a head, and a debt has an owner. If it really was a fox demon wanting to claim his life, it should go to the people who harmed it.”

“Lord Li deserved it, but why go after Taoist Qing?” Boss Huang’s small mung bean-sized eyes suddenly showed panic. “The fox demon should be reasonable ah! Won’t I be the next one?!”

Bai Lixin laughed out loud.

Reasonable?

Humans have never reasoned with animals, so why should they reason with people in turn?

“I want to go home!” Boss Huang was very resistant to staying, “I have magic weapons at home. If it really is the fox demon coming to claim life, you people simply can not stop it, but some magic weapons can save me!”

“Did Taoist Qing give them to you?” Bai Lixin finally came to a point of interest, “Tell us everything you have.”

Boss Huang, “There are yellow talismans, life saving talismans, copper coin swords, a peach wood sword, a compass…”

Bai Lixin’s expression was tangled for a moment; “Are you sure this Taoist Qing is a scripture Taoist?”

With such things, why does he sound like a wandering magician cheating people of their money?

At Bai Lixin’s question, Boss Huang became a little suspicious.

The fox demon killed Taoist Qing, were the things he gave out really useful?

Help, he did not want to think about it.

“We are the only ones who can save now,” Bai Lixin said while looking at Boss Huang intently. “Think about it. Is there anything you forgot to tell us?”

Boss Huang’s eyes flickered, but he gritted his teeth and said, “No!”

Seeing that they couldn’t pry Boss Huang’s mouth open, Dijia and Bai Lixin did not waste time, but got in the car and set off towards the mountain.

The road was bumpy, and Bai Lixin looked down at the notebook in his hand. The information he got and the things he observed were slowly filtered out.

These seemingly unrelated things felt like they were all connected, but he couldn’t find what that connection was.

People can hide or lie, but the truth will gradually emerge with trial and error.

Bai Lixin closed the notebook and looked at Dijia sitting beside him, “Where is the portrait from earlier?”

Dijia, “I hang it in your bedroom at the Li residence. Rest assured, not only your bedroom, but everyone in the Li family is being monitored by my people. What can they do under my nose?”

Dijia kept staring at Bai Lixin’s neck as he talked, and Bai Lixin was a little stunned, “What’s wrong? Why do you keep looking at my neck?”

“I always feel that something is missing,” Dijia mused. “I sent someone to buy a fine pearl necklace from the South. They should be able to deliver it by tomorrow morning. When the time comes, I’ll help you put it on. It’s a welcome gift for my little mother.”

Pearl necklace?

Bai Lixin’s heart skipped a bit. He recalled a few images, and the watery eyes became sharp.

He looked into Dijia’s eyes solemnly, “A pearl necklace? What color?”

From the first time they met, he felt that the Dijia in front of him was not quite right. The Dijia in other copies first treated him as a stranger when they saw him. However, this Dijia acted very familiar with him from the first time they met.

The last time there was this sense of dissonance was in the [Deep Sea Mermaid] copy.

That being said, the [Deep Sea Mermaid] copy was a single person copy, just like this one.

Bai Lixin secretly observed Dijia, not letting go of any little reaction from the other party.

Dijia then said, “Of course it is white. Is there any other color?”

The man chuckled, then grabbed Bai Lixin’s long hair and rubbed it in his fingers, “Doesn’t Little mother feel that wearing just a cheongsam is too monotonous?”

Bai Lixin blushed.

Dijia disrupted his thoughts, and Bai Lixin no longer studied the notebook in his hand but turned his head to look at the scenery outside the window.

There were several temples and Taoist temples in Fengcheng, and this Qinglian Temple was not among the famous ones.

The car could only drive halfway up the mountain, and then they had to walk up the steps.

It was reasonable to say that even if it was not famous, there should be a few people worshipping or someone mentioning the name of the temple.

But today, they did not encounter a shadow of a person the whole way.

The surrounding trees were lush, and if it weren’t for the steps, Bai Lixin would have thought they had come to an unexplored area of the mountain.

After walking for ten minutes, they arrived at the gate of Qinglian Temple.

The black gate was somewhat mottled, and the corners were overgrown with weeds.

Looking in through the gate, only a little Taoist priest in blue robes could be seen sweeping the floor.

Bai Lixin lowered his voice, “When you came to confirm the corpse’s identity, did this Taoist temple look like this?”

“I didn’t see it with my own eyes,” Dijia, “but from what my people said, the temple wasn’t so dilapidated. Let’s go in and ask.”

Not so dilapidated?

A Taoist temple became like this in just two days?

The two entered the gate, but the little Taoist priest kept his head and continued his mechanical work. He kept sweeping the courtyard, and was concentrating to the point that he did not even notice anyone coming in.

A smell of burning wood from the Taoist temple faintly came to the nostrils of the two. Dijia and Bai Lixin glanced at each other, and they saw the suspicion in each other’s eyes.

The Taoist temple was divided into a front hall and a back hall, the front hall was used to worship the various gods and goddesses, the back was where the Taoist priests lived and rested.

The two ignored the small monk and followed the burning smell. They entered the open side door, went to the back hall and came to one of the rooms that had been burned to a crisp.

The beams were broken off from and collapsed, and aside from the room that had burned to ashes, the walls to the two rooms connected to it were a little tilted because there was no support.

“Who are you people?”

A ghostly, hoarse voice came from behind the two. Bai Lixin looked back and behind them was a man in a Taoist robe.

The man was around fifty years old, with gray hair and beard, and his face was morbidly pale.

He stood in the middle of the corridor connecting the outer and inner halls, and looked at them with a pair of emotionless eyes.

Bai Lixin, “Master, we are here to investigate the truth about the murder of Taoist Qing, what happened here?”

The Taoist master’s pupils were so large that they took up almost the entire pupil.

He looked at the speaking Bai Lixin with a pair of emotionless eyes, “Investigate the death of Qing? What do you want?”

Bai Lixin, “We want to visit Taoist Qing’s room and place of daily practice.”

The Taoist priest pointed to a room in the corner, “That is the room of Taoist Qing. He usually lives in seclusion, and this is where he cultivates.”

“Before you go, do me a favor and I will tell you everything about Taoist Qing’s death.”

The system’s voice suddenly rang out in Bai Lixin’s mind.

[Ding! Congratulations to the player for unlocking exploration mission x1. Task content: listen and complete the Taoist master’s instructions.]

[Quest completion reward: Get an introduction to the death of the key character [Taoist Qing].]

[Accept / Reject.]

Can one reject this?

Bai Lixin did not hesitate for a second and quickly chose to accept.

The Taoist master pointed to the burning ruins and said, “Something fell in there, help me find it from the ruins.”

“It is not difficult to find, it fell near the futon near the southwest corner.”

He paused and suddenly smiled bitterly, “Maybe there is no futon, it must have burned to ashes. Anyway, you guys just look for it in that place, it’s a hairpin that’s about this long.”

The Taoist priest stretched out his hands in measurement. “You guys go in and look for it, and when you find it, give it to the young Taoist priest outside, he knows what to do.”

[Ding! Congratulations player, task has been successfully accepted. Please complete the task as soon as possible, there are only 10 minutes left until the room collapses. Task countdown: 10 minutes. This is a crucial task as the identity of Taoist Qing cannot be obtained through any other means if you fail the task.]

[I wish the player a happy game.]

As soon as the system’s voice fell, the countdown appeared in the upper right corner of the task bar.

The crumbling roofs on both sides of the charred room then shook a little.

With only 10 minutes to spare, Bai Lixin no longer delayed. He gave Dijia a look and rushed into the scorched house.

Beams had fallen all over the floor, some hung diagonally overhead, some were burned to black charcoal and were piercing the ground, while some simply fell to the floor.

The walls were burned to black, and the fire seemed very fierce.

But the strange thing was, the rooms were all connected, so the fire should have continued to the other rooms. However, only this one room was burned while the other rooms showed no signs of being burned.

As soon as they crossed into the room, Bai Lixin and Dijia felt the cold aura circulating around them.

Outside was bright and sunny; inside was as cold as an ice cellar.