Chapter 33: Top Suspect

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“What?”

Zhou Heng nearly thought he had misheard and asked in puzzlement, “Master Zhao from Five Auspicious Martial Arts School? He’s dead? And he wrote in his own blood that I’m his murderer?”

“That’s right.” Liu Changsheng nodded. He smiled and said, “But you don’t have to worry about this. Almost no one believes that you killed him. Well, before the truth is revealed, Zhao Yuan’s personal disciples and daughter might be understandably hostile to you.”

“Phew. That’s to be expected.” Zhou Heng heaved a sigh of relief. But he was still puzzled. He brought Liu Changsheng to a corner and asked him, “What exactly is going on? Can you tell me, Young Master Liu?”

Zhao Yuan was a master of Five Auspicious Martial Arts School, he had advanced to the seventh-class more than a decade ago and was an external disciple of Five Elements Clan. He was proficient in many profound martial arts and was considered as one of the experts in Yellow Wood City.

So, how could he drop dead overnight?

“Practitioner Chen from Five Auspicious Martial Arts School found the body.” Liu Changsheng was approachable. He simply told Zhou Heng the full story.

After Zhou Heng heard his words, he gained some understanding of the situation.

Apparently, Zhao Yuan practiced martial arts inside the martial arts school yesterday. By the time he finished, it was already late evening. He simply ate in the canteen of the martial arts school and returned to his private bedroom to rest.

He always had the habit of going to the morning class square in the morning to check on the apprentices, be it rain or shine. However, Practitioner Chen who was in charge of the morning class found him absent on that day.

After the morning class, he went to Zhao Yuan’s bedroom to look for him. To his surprise, he found him dead in his own bedroom.

The whole room was in a mess, and the furniture was broken. Apparently, a fierce battle had taken place before this.

Zhao Yuan’s death was rather miserable. The bones of his knees were completely crushed by powerful forces and his chest cavity had collapsed. The ribs were almost all broken. Most of the internal organs were damaged. Tendons and veins over his body were severed, even his martial arts skills were also crippled.

Finally, the line which he had written before his last breath was full of hatred. “The murderer is Zhou Heng.”

“Since there was a fierce fight, didn’t anyone hear any noises?” Zhou Heng asked skeptically, “Five Auspicious Martial Arts School is a big place, there should be a night watch.”

“The constable from the administrative office interrogated the watchman. He replied that he didn’t hear any noises.” Liu Changsheng shook his head, and said, “This matter is very strange, and becomes even stranger as it has involved you. I guess the constable from the administrative office will summon you in a while. You better get yourself ready.”

“Young Master Liu, did you come over just to inform me about these?” Zhou Heng was surprised. He thought Liu Changsheng was here to bring him to Five Auspicious Martial Arts School or the administrative office.

“I’m not a constable, how can I arrest you?” Liu Changsheng turned his body and walked out. At the same time, he waved his hand, and said, “I’m just languishing about in boredom. I want you to advance to the ninth-class soon so that I can spar with you.

“It’s a real bummer to have encountered such an incident at this juncture. However, I can’t afford to let you screw this up before proper investigating could be carried out. You’d better be vigilant.”

By the time he finished speaking, he had already left.

“Thanks.” Zhou Heng whispered toward the door.

Liu Changsheng did not know that he was already a ninth-class martial artist. This was because the lower third-class levels were yet able to judge other people’s level of cultivation at a glance. They had to raise their hands in a sparring session.

“Zhou Heng, is that Liu Changsheng from Five Elements Clan?” Lin Cang walked over to him. He had actually been watching them and said, “I believe you’re innocent. Nonetheless, Zhao Yuan isn’t just another nobody after all. This won’t boil over just like that.

“Later, if the constable from the administrative office were to come and take you away, don’t try to resist. Just go along with them. Meanwhile, I’ll go and look for the old master. We should be able to lobby some of them.”

“Alright.” Zhou Heng nodded as he replied. He felt slightly better.

Lin Cang was a practitioner who cared about and protected his apprentices. A person like him was rarely seen, no matter the era or world. In usual cases, potentially guilty apprentices would have been long avoided like the plague.

In less than a quarter of an hour after Liu Changsheng had left, a middle-aged man in a green-colored martial arts outfit with a red belt around his waist and a shortsword hanging from it walked in.

Three young men followed him. They were tall and sturdy with similarly green-colored martial arts outfits, but with white belts around their waists.

It was the uniform of constables in Yellow Wood City.

The ones with the red belts were superiors, whereas those with white belts were ordinary constables.

As the head of constables entered the martial arts school, he instantly captured everyone’s sights. He paid them no heed. Instead, he asked for Zhou Heng’s whereabouts politely and simply walked over to him.

“I’m Meng Xing, head of constables from the administrative office.” The head of the constable had a surprisingly gentle approach. He made obeisance to Zhou Heng and said, “Mr. Zhou, Young Master Liu was here not long ago. I’m sure you should have known about the incident of Master Zhao Yuan.”

‘Is the attitude of the head of the constable that courteous these days?”

Zhou Heng froze slightly. He nodded, and said, “Hum, I’ve got the gist of it.”

“Then, Mr. Zhou, please come with us to the Five Auspicious Martial Arts School.” Meng Xing smiled and continued, “Don’t worry, Mister, We’ll be with you. Even if some of the more obtuse from the Five Auspicious Martial Arts School actually believe in the false accusations, they won’t be able to harm you.”

Zhou Heng fell silent. He was a bit stunned and did not know how to respond.

‘What’s going on here? This guy is just being too nice to be true.

‘Could it be because I’m too handsome?

‘Thus, my charm added points to his good impressions on me?

‘Hum, this seems quite reasonable.’

Even Lin Cang stood beside him, equally stunned.

From the beginning, he was already prepared to spend some silver for lobbying purposes, so that the constables would treat Zhou Heng gentler. This was to prevent Zhou Heng from creating any chaos due to his young age and youthful energy.

Never had he thought the attitude of the head of the constable would be this good. He was basically treating Zhou Heng like one of the members of the prestigious family.

‘Did Liu Changsheng have some words with him earlier?

‘But that’s rather unlikely too. Even if he’s bored and wants to spar with an opponent, there’s no need for him to play up to Zhou Heng like that.

‘It was already very kind of him to come over in advance to give him a heads-up.

‘What’s going on?’

Even the apprentices inside the big hall were stunned.

Most of the apprentices from Prosperity Martial Arts School came from ordinary families. Therefore, they paid their respects to people like the head of the constables and the constables. Naturally, they had an inexplicable sense of fear toward them.

Yet, why were these purportedly fearsome guys being so respectful to Zhou Heng?

Could Zhou Heng actually have some kind of great background?

“Mr. Zhou, what do you think?” Meng Xing saw that Zhou Heng fell silent without replying to him. He asked again, his tone remaining gentle. He did not seem to be the least bit anxious.

“Ugh… Alright.” Just then, Zhou Heng returned to his senses, and answered, “Please lead the way, Constable Meng.”

The moment Zhou Heng and Meng Xing departed, the apprentices in Prosperity Martial Arts School turned into an instant uproar.

There was a lot of chatter.

“Oh my God! Zhou Heng can’t be the disciple of any great sects, right?! Unless he’s been hiding his identity all this while?”

“That’s highly possible. He’s extremely talented in martial arts, if he’s not a disciple of a great sect, how could he be so talented?”

“Zhou Heng is too awesome. In fact, he may also be one of the family members of a prestigious family!”

“But, we don’t seem to have a prestigious clan with a surname of Zhou. However, there seems to be a rather powerful Zhou clan down south in Great Jin.”

Lin Cang saw that these people were speculating wildly. The more they guessed, the more outrageous they became. He hurriedly stood up and chided, “What’re you all discussing about?! Practice your martial arts now!”

The apprentices immediately ended their heated discussions and adjourned.

Lin Cang’s gaze shifted away from the apprentices and looked in the direction of the northern district of the city. He was a little worried about Zhou Heng.

Prosperity Martial Arts School was located in the eastern district of the city, which was quite a distance from the northern district of the city.

In spite of Zhou Heng traveling with the team in a horse-drawn carriage, it still took at least an hour for them to reach their destination.

While they were on the way, Zhou Heng asked Head Constable Meng Xin more about the case.

He learned some details that Liu Changsheng had not conveyed to him sooner.

For one, he learned that the window had clearly been left open. Yet, there were no signs of anything else being overturned or damaged.

Even the walls of the bedroom were in good condition.

Even though Zhao Yuan’s bedroom was rather large with a length and width of more than thirty feet and ten feet tall, the furniture had all been broken into pieces. The walls were not damaged at all. It was most unusual.

It was very bizarre.

Zhou Heng frowned. He internally visualized the events that had transpired in the bedroom.

‘From his description, it seems that the interior space of that bedroom has been sealed in a pocket dimension, so that no matter how severe the damage is on the inside, the outside would look fine.

‘Therefore, the walls and windows would remain untouched.

‘If such an ability really exists, it’s normal for people from the outside to not hear the sounds of combat coming from the inside. It had been sealed in a dimension of its own. As such, no sound could escape, and it simply cannot be transmitted.

‘But, what kind of realm would be needed in order to achieve such a level of ability?

‘After all, those at the bottom three classes should not be able to reach that standard.

‘Even an expert at the peak of seventh-class does not simply enclose an empty space.

‘I’m afraid only a mid-third-class expert is able to perform that.

‘Or… could it be a ghost?’

Zhou Heng could not help but recall his previous experience.

It would not seem strange if it was done by those evil, mysterious, undead, and indestructible ghosts that possessed the bizarre ability to seal spaces.

It did seem possible.

As he thought of this, he thought of Yu He’s previous plight.

Initially, Zhou Heng had planned to acquire Palm Technique. It would give him the ability to kill ghosts. After that, he planned to further investigate the matter. He would have never thought that he would be in the thick of things this soon.

He had not even had time to grasp Palm Technique.

‘If this incident is really related to a ghost, could it be the same ghost that Yu He experienced? If so, perhaps I can trace it from Yu He.”

Zhou Heng was lost in his thought.

‘The incident that happened to Yu Heng was the night before. Before that, he had contacted me, Liu Changsheng, Butler Wong, Zhao Yuan and the others. How would he… That’s not correct, I missed one person, it’s Shopkeeper Qian!”

He suddenly thought of that night when Shopkeeper Qian appeared and then disappeared inexplicably.

Although Yu He had not really contacted Shopkeeper Qian that night, that bizarre demeanor and expression of Shopkeeper Qian were obviously dodgy.

Initially, Zhou Heng and Yu He thought that he was merely green with envy and resentment for losing out in the competition for business. Now, this did not seem to be the case.

‘Perhaps, he has colluded with the ghosts?’

“Mr. Zhou, we’ve arrived.” Meng Xing, the head of the constables reminded him.

“Thanks.” Zhou Heng slightly nodded and alighted from the carriage. However, as soon as he got out of the carriage, he saw his number one suspect.

‘It’s Qian Buduo, Shopkeeper Qian!’

Shopkeeper Qian’s face ghastly pale compared to himself two days ago. His expression looked bitter and sad. He sighed from time to time, seemingly very dejected.

The arrival of Zhou Heng immediately attracted the attention of everyone present.

“He’s very handsome!”

This was everyone’s first reaction.

After that, their second reaction was “Such a good-looking person cannot be a murderer!”

Of course, this would be their thoughts because a majority of the people simply did not believe that Zhou Heng had murdered Zhao Yuan.

How could an unranked martial artist kill a seventh-class expert?

That was almost impossible!

At that moment, Shopkeeper Qian walked over and stood before Zhou Heng. His originally bitter and sad expression instantly turned into anger. His eyes fixated on Zhou Heng. He gritted his teeth, and said, “Zhou Heng, you’ve killed Zhao Yuan! How dare you come here! Are you here just to offer your suicidal apology?!”