Chapter 3: Facts and logic still applies in a Xianxia world

 

Chapter 3: Facts and logic still applies in a Xianxia world

T/N 1: It took way longer than it should for me to finish this, but it is what it is.
T/N 2: If you hopped onto this chapter after reading the first 2 chapters in idohobby's site, please read the first 2 chapters again in my blog. You must be aware that some terms and even the plot had changed differently, to an extent. 

Nobody could answer the question.

Li Yu’Chun asked, “what’s the reason for monsters to rob the shipment?”

Magistrate Chen pondered slightly. “Monsters do things solely for pleasure. Trying to seek out reasons does nothing but only troubles your own mind.”

The young lady disagreed on the other hand. “Wouldn’t human flesh taste better… uh, give me a second. Let me finish the meat bun.”

She chomped down the two big meat buns in an instant, turning her own face into a meat bun at the end. She worked hard to swallow and then took a sip of tea. Only then she continued the previous topic, able to smoothly talk about matters of human flesh and the like:

“Monsters does not leave reservations when doing anything. Silver might be less appealing than living, breathing humans in their eyes. Even if they wanted money, stealing or robbing it would be much easier than robbing a government convoy.”

In the Great Feng’s capital city, heisting the tax silver on transport was too risky.

Magistrate Chen nodded. “That’s reasonable, but we can’t exclude the fact that they might be instructed.”

Li Yu’Chun blinked his eyes. “Then who would be instructing the monsters to do it? What would the reason be? Why must it be this batch of tax silver, and it had to be 15,000 taels?”

“We could think of it this way, the person behind the scenes wanted a big sum of money and couldn’t cause too big of a commotion… More precisely, they can’t gather money recklessly.” Magistrate Chen focused.

“That is why they targeted the tax silver?” The young lady pinched her vibrant reddish lips.

“The route for the escort was chosen at random, the actual route was randomly chosen by the imperial guard’s captain, Xu Ping'Zhi. If the monsters could setup an ambush under the river, ahead of time… Then it was most likely that there’s an informant among the escort party.” Li Yu’Chun looked at Magistrate Chen and spoke, “go to Cloud Deer Academy and ask a Confucian expert to question the heart?”

The young lady rolled her eyes. “Are you looking down on our Qi Examination Technique? I have already told you, the soldiers that took part in the tax silver escort did not know of anything.”

The line of thought had been stuck once again, the trio went into silence.

The air itself froze.

Li Yu’Chun lowered his head and looked at the dossier in detail; Magistrate Chen silently lamented. The young lady was fidgeting with the Feng Shui tablet that hung from her waist. She thought to leave the prefecture before dusk, and enter the palace to smooch off dinner from the eldest princess.

The standards of the royal cooks in the palace are best in the world after all!

Compared to those two officials, the young lady named Cai Wei was more akin to a consultant, that assisted in handling the case.

She had no official standing or rank, although she was one of the persons that was responsible for solving the case—she did not need to bear much responsibility.

Magistrate Chen’s eyes wavered as he prodded, “The case is currently progressing slowly. But time is gravely limited. It is absolutely frustrating indeed. Mr. Li, how about we consult with Master Wei?”

The middle-aged man rolled his eyes and grunted, “you scholarly officials had to undergo the national exams, us Nightwatchers have an equivalent as well. To be honest, dealing with this is the exam that Master Wei had given to me.”

Magistrate Chen smiled bitterly. “If the case could not be solved, the seat under my bottom might be pull away from me, much like my position. Everyone in the royal court are watching us.”

Both men looked at each other in silence, the atmosphere was solemn.

---

“If it were monsters behind this, I wouldn’t be able to do anything!” Xu Qi'An’s face had turned pale, he felt that the heavens are looking to mess him up.

There are monsters in this world. Their tribes had existed since time began, they hunted and devoured humans, and the humans did likewise.

In the Eastern Expanse’s Hundred-Thousand Mountain Range, there exists a Ten-thousand Yao Nation, which is the greatest gathering spot for Yao Guai tribes.

Five hundred years ago, under the leadership of the Buddhists, the western nations declared war on the Ten-thousand Yao Nation. They had warred for nearly 60 years before the Yao Nation was finally razed.

The history books had named this war as: ’60 years Yao destruction’.

Since then, the luck of the monster tribes had been damaged and they slowly became little in presence. On the other hand, the Buddhists since had soared to the skies, their influence had prospered.

Using Xu Qi'An’s otherworldly wisdom to interpret, it meant that the humans had won their position after fighting a battle to claim the spot at the top of the food chain.

If the tax silver was robbed by the monsters, then he could only recover it from them to save himself and his family.

As someone at the peak of the Body-Refinement Stage, which is a silver-ranked bozo, Xu Qi'An felt that it was impossible for him to turn things around for the better.

The autumn season had arrived, the weather was cold and moist. It made Xu Qi'An exert cold sweat from his body.

He was afraid.

After merging memories with the original host, he knew that he could never break out from prison. He also realized that human rights are nonexistent in this world due to the feudal system where the imperial influence was far too strong.

His right to live could be taken by just a single flick of a finger.

He had imagined to regress back into Ancient China to recite poems and show off, which would be satisfying. But reality had come around and slapped him in the face.

He was hit with the grim reality of fate even after transmigrating.

“No. This is just a prediction by the county’s office. I can’t be affected by their judgement. I will do it on my own, I will investigate… maybe there’s still a chance, still a chance…”

His overwhelming will to live had swiftly calmed him down. His logical reasoning became sharp and intense.

“Why would monsters rob the tax silver, won’t human flesh be better… Even if they lack money they don’t need to target the tax silver… I heard tales that the Yao Guai ladies are all stunning and have bombshell figures… Would there be any dog or cat ladies…”

Slap! Xu Qi'An gave himself a slap. “Deduce again!”

The most important aspect of deduction is elimination. To pull out clues and categorize them bit by bit.

If not, it would become a ball of yarn, everything will only become more chaotic.

There two most obvious clues of this case were:

One—Supernatural gust of wind.

Two—An explosion occurred after the tax silver shipment fell into the river.

Aside from martial artists, multiple cultivation systems provide the ability to produce the gust of wind. Hence, ‘clue one’ could be used as evidence that a ‘cultivator’ had participated. But it could not provide any clearer details.

His second uncle that was a martial artist would invite less suspicion, although it could not be denied that he might have conspired it with someone else.

The second clue indicated that it was incredibly unreasonable. Though cultivators of higher tiers would commonly induce explosions while fighting; But when it comes to this case, it was not indicated that combat had happened. Thus, the explosions that had happened were simply unreasonable.

“Unless, it had to be an explosion!” Xu Qi'An muttered.

“In the respective cultivation systems, which one mandates causing explosions to achieve tasks?”

Xu Qi'An pondered for a moment but could not come up with an answer. Then he realized that he had made the same mistake just like the officials in Jing’Zhao Prefecture.

Their way of thinking had been wrong since the beginning. They followed the most obvious clue of the case and decided that monsters were involved. Then they began long-jumping into conclusions and never turned back.

This was not a wrong thing to do. But the issue was that the decision to do so was far too reckless.

Xu Qi'An had assimilated his memories, but he still comprehended logic using a modern human’s way to reasoning as the guide, and the experiences he had in his past life as the basis. He preferred thoroughly examining the dossier and squeeze out the barely noticeable details, and then make a conclusion.

“Since that my current line of thinking isn’t working, then I will change it. I’ll look for a breakthrough from other aspects. First, I will eliminate the monster factor, and hypothesize that this was a carefully executed plan by humans.

Then, they must’ve left behind clues in the case.

Locard’s Exchange Prinicple states that, once a physical crime had been committed, there must be a direct or indirect trace left behind on the scene…

The various traces could be classified into two general categories. I don’t remember the specifics, but it should generally be trails, fingerprints, tool usage and such.

The breakthrough is not on the two most obvious clues, but found within these various traces left behind…”

According to the dossier’s contents, Xu Qi'An simulated the process of the escort done by his second uncle using his imagination.

His adrenaline production spiked, and his brain activity became highly active. If information exchange within his brain could be simulated, it would look like koi fishes in a pond—they are intensely fighting over food, greatly churning the water around them.

Multiple attempts were made to reconstruct and deduce the scene.

All information written on the dossier had converged. His brain was operating like a stress-tested CPU.

As the amalgamation of information had merged, the outlook became clearer and clearer.

Unwittingly, Xu Qi'An felt like he had entered a trance. His soul seemed to have floated away and escaped the flesh. He went through the building and float upwards onto the skies of the capital city.

The time had reversed, the sun dawned on the eastern horizon. Xu Ping'Zhi was leading a group of armed warriors, they escorted the tax silver towards the revenue office.

Then, it was 6:30… walking towards Southwide Street. Suddenly, a supernatural gust of wind had spooked the horses, they ran into the river.

Bang!

The river exploded and the air was covered in water droplets.

The deafening explosion rang as if it occurred within Xu Qi'An’s heart. Reflexively, he flopped his feet and it woke him up.

His eyes were filled with exhaustion, but his face was filled with exhilarating joy.

“I know it! I know it! Hahaha, I have solved the mystery!”

Xu Qi'An laughed maniacally, while smacking the prison bars. “Somebody come here, come quickly!”

The prison guard on duty was shocked, he whipped out a baton and scolded, “Making all this noise, are you courting death?”

He smacked the bars hard in an attempt to shock Xu Qi'An.

Xu Qi'An backed off. He retracted his hands from the bars to avoid having his fingers smashed broken. He muttered, “I want to meet the magistrate.”

“A lowly prisoner wanted to meet the magistrate… Why don’t you piss on the floor and look through the reflection.” The prison guard was angrily amused. He extended the baton into the prison bars, trying to poke Xu Qi'An.

Xu Qi'An dodged backwards once again.

“You still dare to hide?” The prison guard pulled out the keychain from his waist and grinned. “I’ll break your legs right now.”

“I have important information about the lost tax silver. I want to meet the magistrate. You will face the consequences if you cause any delays.” Xu Qi'An stared at him.

The prison guard’s face turned stiff.

---

Inside the hall, the young lady who had finished eating the meat buns continued to chew on sugar canes. Occasionally pulling out a few candied fruits from her deerskin purse to complement the meal.

Her mood was plain. On the other hand, the other persons were suffering. She seemed heartless.

“His royal majesty ordered us to solve the case in five days. Now that the time had dragged on for so long, the tax silver might never be recovered again.” Magistrate Chen walked back and forth in the hall, he could not sit still any longer. “But with this little time, we simply couldn’t do much.”

Solving cases took time.

The magistrate slammed the table with his palm, and muttered, “I will personally meet Master Wei. Give me the dossier.”

Li Yu’Chun hesitated slightly. “I will go with you.”

The young lady glanced at him and stated, “This should work. Once this great figure of Great Feng had involved himself, the two of you wouldn’t be criticized by his majesty.

But, it would leave a bad impression on Master Wei. This will be a worse fate than being chastised by his majesty.” She grinned, showing two pearlescent, sharp teeth.

The middle-aged man’s face sank.

Then, a constable wearing work robes swiftly entered the hall with his head lowered, he then bowed. “Sir magistrate, the prison guards report that Xu Ping'Zhi nephew, Xu Qi'An mentioned that he had important information about the lost tax silver. He would like to have an audience with you.”

The trio was simultaneously stunned.

Xu Qi'An was a nobody that was not involved in the case if he recalled correctly. After initial questioning and interrogation, he was confirmed as a random that was unrelated to the case.

Magistrate Chen exhaled deeply, and commanded, “bring him here.”

Soon, Xu Qi'An wearing his prisoner’s outfit, with dried bloodstains on his body was brought forward by the constables. His shackles were rattling while he walked.