What Shen Hao was most curious about was: if he were to step up to the Black Wall, how many times would the Fleeting Appearance manifest?

"What are you thinking about?" Liu Chuan came over on his patrol, saw Shen Hao staring at the Black Wall, and stopped to chat with him.

"Hundred Households Liu, you’re well-experienced—just how powerful is the Three Appearances of Floating Light really?"

"Heh, Shen Zongqi, don’t flatter me. Our cultivation is about the same; I probably haven’t seen much more than you have. Besides, the Three Appearances of Floating Light is Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute’s own standard. How powerful it is, I really can’t say for sure. All I know is that people with that kind of talent cultivate in a completely different way than we do. They are truly part of the Cultivation Realm, while we’re just getting tossed around in the mundane world, muddling through secular affairs." Liu Chuan’s tone was both self-deprecating and envious. Xuanqing Guard sounded impressive, but compared to these sect prodigies, they weren’t even close.

"Why belittle yourself, Hundred Households Liu? I actually like the hustle and bustle of the world—those hidden paradises just aren’t for me. Still, I am curious: what exactly is it about their cultivation that makes it different from ours?"

"What could they possibly cultivate? Still the same—cultivation. It’s just that their path is a wide official highway, while ours, at best, is a narrow ridge between rice fields. For most of us, it doesn’t even count as a road; we’re crawling along. Anyway, enough about this. It just gets depressing."

Liu Chuan paused, then changed the subject: "Lord Tang has sung your praises quite a bit, said you’re a master at handling cases. Since we don’t have much to do right now, why don’t you share your thoughts on the previous two cases?"

This was exactly what Shen Hao was worried about. The Xuanqing Guard was never short of sharp-minded people—especially those on the front lines. He was very concerned about being dragged into those two cases’ files, because someone could end up deducing that the real target of the killer was him.

Better safe than sorry.

"I do have some thoughts. If I say something off, I hope you’ll correct me, Hundred Households Liu." Shen Hao smiled like nothing was on his mind, hiding all his calculations beneath the surface.

"Just say whatever, Shen Zongqi. I’m here to learn from you." Liu Chuan didn’t dare put on airs with Shen Hao, just genuinely curious.

"The two cases are almost identical. Considering the timing and the difficulty of the crimes, copycatting is practically impossible. So I agree with combining the two cases, and I’m fairly certain it was done by the same person—not a group."

"Oh? Not a group, but an individual? That’s an interesting angle, Shen Zongqi. Go on."

"It’s simple. Killing and cooking are both artisanal crafts: the better you are, the more time you’ve spent practicing over and over. And these repeated actions will, according to personal habit, develop subtle variations—what you might call ’signatures.’ For example, in both cases, the victims were subdued first, but the killer picked a slow, methodical way to finish them—exsanguination. You don’t see that kind of habitual signature too often, do you?"

Liu Chuan didn’t say a word. Earlier, he’d discussed the case with Han Yuan and Ma He, thinking it leaned more toward a group crime. But after Shen Hao’s analysis, it did seem a lot more like a one-man job. If Shen Hao was right, then the killer’s cultivation must be...

Shen Hao continued, "The real core of these two cases is easy to pinpoint: the culprit is searching for one or more items that recently sold at the Hongyun Auction."

Seemingly casually, Shen Hao put particular emphasis on the word "recently."

"You mean..."

"To be precise, it’s from the day ’Liang Tian’, ’Niu Jing’, and ’Wang Qi’ came to Pingjiang City to hold the small auction, up to the days they died. Any item they sold in that period could be what the killer is after. And it’s highly likely that the person searching is among these cultivators who came for the Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute’s recruitment season.

Bit embarrassing to say—I was curious and went to the auction myself a few days ago. Ended up buying a rare piece of Yin Jade. Chen Tianwen Zongqi was with me too. Haha—turned out it was the Hongyun Auction."

As he spoke, Shen Hao fished out the palm-sized piece of Yin Jade from his robes and handed it to Liu Chuan, feeling uneasy. Repeatedly chanting inwardly: Don’t let anything weird happen, don’t let anything weird happen!

He was muttering this toward the Black Beast Tattoo on his chest, worried that once Liu Chuan took the Yin Jade, the tattoo would somehow jump out and make trouble.

Fortunately, just as he wished, there wasn’t the slightest abnormality in his chest.

Liu Chuan, of course, had no idea Shen Hao had so much going on in his head. He just took the Yin Jade out of curiosity, flipping it over and over, then nodded: "Indeed, a piece of Yin Jade this big is really rare. The largest I’ve seen was maybe two inches wide, but yours is more than twice that. Still, why’d you buy this thing? You don’t do Artifact Refining."

Actually, Liu Chuan already knew Shen Hao had gone to the Hongyun Auction and also what he’d bought. He hadn’t brought it up because it wasn’t time—and it wasn’t necessary just then. Now that Shen Hao offered it up himself, Liu Chuan actually felt more at ease.

"For my collection, of course! Something this rare has way more value to me than some calligraphy or painting by so-called famous artists. Otherwise, why would I have dropped so much money on it?"

"Huh? Collecting?" Liu Chuan blinked a few times, giving Shen Hao that "so you’re weird like this too" look. Then he handed the rare Yin Jade back to Shen Hao.

There were plenty of oddballs in the Xuanqing Guard—Liu Chuan had seen stranger hobbies than this. Collecting Yin Jade was nothing. Besides, this was just an ordinary piece of Yin Jade, just unusually large.

As for that tattered map on the Yin Jade, Liu Chuan couldn’t see it.

After a bit more small talk, Shen Hao went back to his spot at the patrol post, while Liu Chuan wandered off—he still had other points to check.

As soon as Liu Chuan left, Shen Hao let out a long breath in his heart.

Better to come clean and show it than to hide and cover up—it seemed more open and less suspicious that way.

Of course, Shen Hao’s real confidence to act like this came from his belief in that Yin Jade’s oddity. He was sure Liu Chuan couldn’t see anything special about it. After all, the thing had been through the auction, changed hands who knows how many times, examined by countless people, and no one discovered its true nature. That was proof enough it was safe.

Later, Han Yuan and Ma He would definitely have in-depth discussions about the file with Liu Chuan. As long as Liu Chuan believed him, neither the Yin Jade nor Shen Hao’s name would show up in the investigation records—no one would get fixated on digging into his involvement.

The night passed without incident—Shen Hao just dozed for a few minutes before it was the next day.

November 13th, overcast.

At first light, a layer of fog rose at the foot of Gui Mountain. It took until full daylight for it to slowly fade away. But it didn’t affect the recruitment process.

Compared to yesterday, even fewer people passed today. By sunset, only four people had triggered the Three Appearances of Floating Light at the Black Wall. Still, the Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute folks looked calm as ever, saying such fluctuations were perfectly normal.

It really was normal. Aside from the first day, for the past eight days the Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute averaged six new disciples per day. Add in the nine from the first-day rush, and barring surprises, there’d be fewer than seventy new disciples this time. So far, only one had qualified directly for the Inner Sect.

Tomorrow was the last day of the Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute’s grand mountain gate event—Shen Hao couldn’t wait to wrap things up and dash back to Li City.