"General Flag, I’ve already examined the bodies of the two criminals. Near their heart and abdomen, each has a fleshy lump—that is a fatal disease. Normally, anyone who develops such a thing wouldn’t survive more than three years, yet they seem unharmed. It’s as if their bodies have manifested a restrictive ability, confining the poison of the disease to a minuscule area, preventing its spread...

Furthermore, the mental states of these two criminals are unnaturally good, but the cause is nowhere to be found."

After the physician reported the results, it was confirmed that the Zhao Brothers indeed suffered from a deadly illness. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, they stubbornly clung to life. The cause likely had much to do with that so-called Blood Steaming skill.

The Zhao Brothers were allowed to rest for a morning. The interrogation continued after noon, starting once again with Zhao He Kun.

"My brother and I were born in the ninth year of Kaiyuan..."

Shen Hao felt this was absurd. This was currently the Jing Old Calendar; Kaiyuan Calendar was from the previous cycle, and according to the customs of Jingjiu Dynasty, each legislative cycle lasted ninety-nine years. If Zhao He Kun spoke the truth, wouldn’t he be a hundred and sixteen years old this year?!

"I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true. The reason we’ve had to fabricate identities and start families is because we’ve lived too long—too long not to raise suspicion..."

According to Zhao He Kun, the two brothers had obtained the Blood Steaming skill nearly a century ago. They’ve traversed the land of the Jingjiu Dynasty from east to west, north to south, never staying in one place longer than twenty years before moving on.

At first, they traveled under the guise of "Divination Skill," going from street to street to gather children’s birthdates, then abducted targets using a magical artifact and general spirit stone gifted by a wandering cultivator.

But later, they found the income from wandering too low, not enough to offset the cost of general spirit stones. Moreover, seeking information from place to place was inefficient and aroused suspicion. After much deliberation, they set their sights on the Population Department—where local demographic records were kept. If they could infiltrate the Government Office Population Department, finding targets would become simple.

So the brothers began researching how to enter the Government Office Population Department.

Others might not have the energy or time to figure out how to get into a clean government office, but the Zhao Brothers had plenty of both. According to Zhao He Kun, after receiving Blood Steaming "treatment," they could reverse aging—their physical appearance and traits looping within a fixed range. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Zhao Hesheng, the elder brother, would loop from twenty to fifty years old—not too young, nor too old. Zhao He Kun, meanwhile, would loop from thirty to sixty. This explained why Zhao Hesheng looked much younger than Zhao He Kun.

But these were merely the brothers’ own words; no one knew if they’d rehearsed it ahead of time. So, to verify their claims, Shen Hao borrowed an "Age Stone" from the Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute’s recruitment outpost, a magical artifact stone mirror that could accurately test someone’s true age.

This artifact was used by Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute when recruiting disciples—very precious. The Li City Guard Station couldn’t hope to have such an item.

Currently, Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute was in its secluded cultivation period, so the Age Stone was idle at the outpost. Fortunately, the people from the Foreign Affairs Hall respected the Black Banner Battalion; upon hearing Shen Hao’s request, they promptly brought the Age Stone over.

"These two are exceedingly strange... Their true ages are both over a hundred..."

The Outer Sect Steward from Gui Mountain Cultivation Institute was curious, but too embarrassed to ask further. He feared overstepping or causing misunderstanding with the Xuanqing Guard’s case. So after leaving the Age Stone’s results, he departed. Even as he walked off, his muttering could be heard—he simply couldn’t understand how two totally untrained men could live so long and still "look handsome."

After Shen Hao saw off the Outer Sect Steward, he returned to the Guard Station, feeling a shiver of dread in his heart.

The Zhao Brothers had truly used the Blood Steaming skill to resist a fatal illness and stubbornly lived for more than a century, showing no signs of decrepitude.

In other words, if this continued, wouldn’t the Zhao Brothers become "immortal" in the common sense?

The deeper Shen Hao thought, the more he felt a chill down his spine.

He turned back and spoke to Wang Jian and Zhang Liao, who were always at his side, word by word: "Without my permission, nothing about Blood Steaming is to be leaked outside. Anyone who violates this order will be executed!"

Wang Jian and Zhang Liao nodded at once, not daring to utter a word. They knew well that if news of Blood Steaming got out, heaven only knew what disaster it might bring.

People—many times—can be worse than they themselves can imagine.

Killing others to gain immortality—for most, that’s not a losing deal, but a business with huge profit!

Yet Shen Hao still did not believe it. He refused to believe there was such an easy path to immortality! If there were, then what purpose would cultivation serve? Would all cultivators be fools?

Still, for the next three days, no matter what methods Shen Hao used, he failed to extract more information from the Zhao Brothers. The truth was that they’d been wrung dry; they didn’t actually know who the "cultivator who saved them" truly was. Even the man’s appearance, they could only vaguely describe—unable to sketch it in detail.

Even so, Shen Hao boldly deduced that the cultivator who taught the Zhao Brothers Blood Steaming was highly likely to be an evil cultivator. Yet even now, Shen Hao did not know why that evil cultivator imparted the Blood Steaming skill to them.

In fact, by this point, the Liu Yan Case and the broader series of missing persons could be officially closed. The murderer was caught, evidence was conclusive, and the confessions were corroborated—fully satisfying the closing procedures. Yet Shen Hao delayed, convinced things weren’t so simple. His intuition told him the case was missing a hidden piece of the puzzle.

But by the fifth day, he couldn’t stall any longer. Not only did Tang Qingyuan demand that Shen Hao close the case quickly so he could file a proper dossier to appease Fengri City’s pressure, even Chen Yiyun and Jiang Cheng gave overt or subtle hints to speed up progress.

Finally, with no alternative, Shen Hao classified the file as "top secret," then reported it to Tang Qingyuan, Chen Yiyun, Jiang Cheng, and a few others. The file involved the Blood Steaming skill, a forbidden technique still not fully understood, so Shen Hao had to tread carefully.

But once the dossier was submitted, the response from Fengri City Thousand Households Station was beyond Shen Hao’s expectations.

The reply slip read: Immediately execute Zhao He Kun and Zhao Hesheng; execution must not be public. The posted notice must not mention anything about evil cultivators, nor detail the methods of the crime.

This was clearly an attempt to seal up the case quickly.

Though the reply wasn’t a formal order, Shen Hao dared not disobey. Who knew how much pressure Jiang Cheng was bearing for him up above; insisting stubbornly would be reckless.

That night, Shen Hao himself wielded the blade, right in the Black Banner Battalion’s quarters of Li City Xuanqing Guard, casually selecting an interrogation chamber to serve as the place of execution for the Zhao Brothers.

"Good and evil always have their due. If there’s a next life, the two of you ought to repay your debts as pigs and dogs."

Shen Hao raised the Yanji Saber overhead, and as his words fell, he swung the blade down. The blade gang swept through, and two heads thudded into the bamboo baskets, while blood spurted over three meters from the remaining stumps before quickly losing force and staining the floor.

Yet just as the men in the interrogation chamber were about to collect the bodies, Shen Hao suddenly ordered them to leave at once...