Black Banner Battalion station, Interrogation Chamber.

Zhou Guangcai and Jia Sheng were still the only two top torturers in the battalion. There weren’t many cases in Black Banner Battalion these days, and there were no plans to expand the interrogation team for now, so their days were much more relaxed than their counterparts in the Garrisons. When nothing happened, they’d just cradle cups of tea, laze out on recliners for half the day, and after a few months, both had put on a layer of fat. Sometimes, they even wished something exciting would come up.

Sure enough, something did come up in the evening—a well-dressed, delicate-looking young man was dragged in. It was the Young Master Wen who’d been thrown into the dungeons earlier.

Seeing the interrogation docket handed to them, Zhou Guangcai and Jia Sheng shared a smile—finally, some entertainment.

If you do interrogations for a living, and don’t treat it as ’fun,’ you won’t last long. That’s why they’re called ’killing talents’—a term that’s half praise, half mockery.

"Brother Zhou, this one’s cultivation isn’t low! Qi Refining Ninth Layer, Great Perfection! One more step and he’s about to break through to the Gathering Spirit Realm! And only nineteen—quite something!"

"So what? Still getting tossed around by us like a grandson, isn’t he? Strap him to the pillar, suppress his cultivation first, then take off the Spirit Suppressing Talisman and the board lock. Be careful, don’t screw it up."

"Relax, Brother Zhou. If I could mess that up, I wouldn’t be in this line of work."

Jia Sheng hung the man onto the cross pillar, then activated the Spirit Suppression Restriction set in the pillar—a thing made specifically for dealing with cultivators. It could suppress a cultivator’s powers, making sure they couldn’t use them to dull the pain during torture.

After firing up the Spirit Suppression Restriction, Jia Sheng removed the Spirit Suppressing Talisman and the board lock from Young Master Wen—no need for those anymore.

"You bastards!"

Freed from the board lock, Young Master Wen could finally speak. His face was dark with rage; his first words were a furious roar. In his eyes, Jia Sheng and Zhou Guangcai were courting death—daring to strip him and tie him up on a pillar! Sheer humiliation!

"If you can talk, then talk properly. Don’t ask for more suffering!" Jia Sheng swung his arm and slapped him hard across the face with a crack, shutting him up before he could say another word. At this point, if the little scholar still couldn’t figure out his position, his brain’s got to be a bit soft.

His cultivation was all but suppressed, but a cultivator’s body was still tough, so Jia Sheng’s slap wouldn’t do much real harm. But for the dignified direct heir of the Wen Family to be slapped for no good reason—that blew his mind entirely.

"You, you... You’re dead! All of you are dead!"

The last shreds of rationality were slapped out of him too. Young Master Wen screamed in rage, his eyes bloodshot from fury.

"Smack!" Jia Sheng had no patience for hot-headed fools who didn’t know when to keep their mouth shut. Without missing a beat, he slapped him again and grabbed a leather whip from the rack by his side.

"Brother Zhou, should I give him an appetizer first? How about some ’Saltwater Red Stripes’?"

"Go ahead, you start. I’ll write up the case file, fill in each answer as soon as we get it—easier that way." Zhou Guangcai kept his head down, scribbling away.

Seeing Zhou nod, Jia Sheng grinned, dunked the leather whip into a little bucket by the side.

The bucket was filled with concentrated brine. Only when the whip was soaked could every strike land deep—and each blow would pack a nasty aftershock.

Lifting his hand, Jia Sheng swung, a flower of whips, and brought it down with a snap. The wet whip cracked into flesh, instantly raising a red mark two fingers wide. That’s where the snack’s name—’Saltwater Red Stripes’—comes from.

Usually, they’d give a hundred strokes of Saltwater Red Stripes, and then decide on the next round of torture based on how the victim responded.

Just as the hundred lashes finished, Shen Hao and Wang Jian pushed open the interrogation chamber doors, waved Zhou and Jia Sheng to not bother with formalities, dragged over a chair and sat in the corner like they were just here to watch the show.

Seeing Shen Hao himself had come, Zhou and Jia Sheng naturally worked even harder to show off in front of the higher-ups—their torture tricks actually possessed a touch of perverse artistry in their hands.

"What’s your name?"

"You’re dead! All of you are dead!"

"Oh, pretty lively, huh? Jia Sheng, hit him with the hard stuff—go top to bottom!"

"On it!"

After about the time for a meal...

"What’s your name?"

"You—..."

"Jia Sheng, give him another round—still the hard stuff, go from below."

"Wait! I—, ah!"

Another meal’s time passed...

"What’s your name?" Zhou Guangcai’s tone was as cold and casual as ever.

"Wen—Wen Renhai."

"Why did you snatch someone in broad daylight? What was your aim?"

...

Item by item, Wen Renhai confessed. Some questions above deliberately angled his abduction today toward the previous series of missing cases, clouded by ’speculation’ but not directly beating a co-conspirator confession out of him—deliberately left ambiguous.

"Make two stamped copies of this file—one for Hundred Households Tang, one for Hundred Households Chen in Fengri City. The original stays in Black Banner Battalion’s internal files for now."

"Understood. And... the Wen Family?"

"Don’t worry about them. If the Wen Family can’t even get wind of this much, they’re not worth fretting over. As for Wen Renhai and the others, keep them in the dungeons, double the security—until I sign off, no one gets to see them, got that?"

"Yes!"

Wang Jian had barely taken the two stamped case files away before, in less than the time for a stick of incense to burn, the news had already spread across Li City Xuanqing Guard—it wasn’t a secret by design, as per orders, but it also showed how much the ’White Deer Mountain Wen Family’ still turned heads.

Tang Qingyuan was even more anxious, calling Shen Hao into his office, face looking grim.

"What exactly do you want?"

"Sir, I’m just doing my duty. Wen Renhai abducted someone in the open, drugged them, there’s witness and material evidence, not to mention his own confession—this case..."

"Enough! Don’t bother with the smoke and mirrors. I know you wouldn’t fake a case, but why did you have to mess with the Wen Family?"

"Sir, Wen Renhai snatched my household slave for no reason and crippled my butler first. Wasn’t it them who messed with me?" Shen Hao dropped the act with Tang Qingyuan, bluntly venting his annoyance.

Tang Qingyuan wasn’t angered by Shen Hao’s tone. On the contrary, he thought the fact Shen Hao didn’t bother to hide meant he truly was ’one of their own.’

"The Wen Family’s been arrogant for ages. Hell, three years ago they even beat up Ri City’s gate scribe—crippling your butler is nothing. But you’re bold and ruthless, going after Wen Renhai like this. What are you planning? Don’t tell me you’re really going to tear it up with the Wen Family?"

"Sir, we’re just doing our job by the books—what tearing of faces? If the Wen Family’s so influential that they can get Hundred Households Chen to release him, I have nothing to say."

Tang Qingyuan’s lips curled upward when he heard that—it was hard to say if it was a smile or a bitter curl.