Chapter 13 The Truth

Leaving the inn, Fatty Jiangcheng walked to a stall along the street. There was a stove propped up, and the firewood underneath was burning vigorously, crackling. When the vendor wearing a melon-skin hat saw him coming, he immediately lifted the lid of the stove, and the aroma of roasted sweet potatoes burst out all at once.

"Hey there, two of you! Fragrant roasted sweet potatoes, fresh out of the oven!" The elderly vendor said with a smile, baring a mouthful of yellowed teeth.

Fatty’s mouth watered as he stared straight at the sweet potatoes inside. "Give me ten! Pick the big ones!"

"You got it!"

Holding the wrapped roasted sweet potatoes, the two found a spot nearby and squatted down to eat. Jiangcheng was originally leaning against the wall, but Fatty persuaded him to squat down together. Fatty's mouth was covered in sweet potato. "Doctor, listen to me, you have to squat to eat roasted sweet potatoes, preferably in the corner of a wall. That's how you get the best flavor."

Jiangcheng reluctantly tried it, and found that it did seem to make a little bit of difference. The same half of the sweet potato seemed to taste better.

Nudging Jiangcheng with his elbow, Fatty was about to say something, but before he could speak, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly spotted two familiar figures at a street corner not far away.

As soon as he saw these two people, Fatty stood up abruptly, because it was none other than Lu Qin and Shao Tong, who had almost killed him before.

Fatty hadn't expected these two to dare to show their faces again.

And they looked quite relaxed.

As soon as they were spotted by Fatty, Lu Qin and Shao Tong walked out. Shao Tong, who was a step behind Lu Qin, still had that nonchalant expression, which made Fatty grit his teeth.

"Don't be impulsive, let's see what they're up to," Jiangcheng said, putting away his sweet potato and standing next to Fatty.

Shao Tong was carefree, and even smiled and asked Fatty and Jiangcheng for sweet potatoes in this situation. "We've known each other for a while, and who knows when we might be able to help you. It's not too much for me, Daoist Priest, to have one of your sweet potatoes, right?"

Jiangcheng wasn't annoyed, and pretended to be concerned. "Where did you two go last night? We were so worried about you, we thought you were caught by those things."

"We went to a very far place yesterday to look for clues. We ran into some trouble on the way, so we didn't make it back. When we got back to the Marquis's mansion after dark, the gates were already closed. The roads around the mansion aren't easy to navigate at night, so we spent the night outside," Lu Qin explained in detail, clearly having prepared in advance. But Jiangcheng and Fatty didn't believe a word of it.

Shao Tong, who had taken the sweet potato, was in a good mood and couldn't help but narrow his eyes. "But luckily we didn't go back last night, otherwise how could we have happened to see that thing."

Hearing this, Jiangcheng became interested. "What did you see?"

"Although we didn't go inside the Marquis's mansion last night, we didn't dare to go too far from it. So we found an empty house not far from the mansion. From near the house, we could just see the gate of the mansion."

"The two of us took turns keeping watch. As a result, just after the second half of the night began, I was woken up. Shao Tong and I discovered that the gate of the Marquis's mansion was actually open." Lu Qin's expression became serious. "And it was the main gate."

"Opening the main gate at night?"

"Yes, we saw it with our own eyes," Lu Qin emphasized. "After the main gate opened, a team of people came out, with a cavalry leading the way in front. But the cavalry didn't make much noise. They must have wrapped the horses' hooves in soft cloth. Also, none of these people were carrying torches, but only the four people at the front and the back were carrying lanterns, white paper lanterns."

Carrying white lanterns at night was definitely a taboo. White lanterns had a saying, also called underworld lamps. Judging from the actions of the Marquis's mansion, there must be an unknown secret hidden inside. The entire Marquis's mansion was like a huge mystery, but this mystery was being torn open little by little.

"What else did you see?" Fatty asked in a low voice.

Even the unserious Shao Tong quieted down and glanced at Fatty with a subtle look. "We knew that this team must have a story, so we immediately left the house and slowly approached. In the end, these people transported a coffin out of the Marquis's mansion, a very large coffin, and placed it on a carriage. The coffin was wrapped in thick hemp ropes."

"After the coffin was transported out, these people didn't stop for a moment and went directly in one direction, moving very quickly. And we confirmed that direction today. It's the direction of the Spring God Lake, dozens of miles west from here. There's no mistake," Shao Tong said firmly.

At night, the Marquis's mansion, the cavalry, the underworld lamps leading the way, plus the coffin wrapped in hemp ropes, and the direction of the Spring God Lake, all of this combined meant that this was definitely not a simple journey.

The coffin needed to be tied with hemp ropes, which proved that there must be something very dangerous inside. Now, the most important thing was to figure out exactly what they transported out of the Marquis's mansion.

Jiangcheng had a few guesses. First, the coffin was dug out of the back garden of the Yin residence, which was Guo the General, or his wife's cenotaph. This could also correspond to the so-called spirit transfer tonight.

Second... Jiangcheng frowned. He suspected that there was a living person in the coffin, but this living person was very dangerous. To put it bluntly, he suspected that it might be the Marquis of Zhennan.

But since it was necessary to use this method of escort, it proved that the Marquis of Zhennan's situation was worse than they had expected, and should have reached the point of being completely eroded.

He couldn't help but recall the story that the Marquis of Zhennan had told them, about Guo the General and his disciples being sealed by him in the cabins, and the story of the entire army being wiped out. The connection between these things was chilling.

Back then, Guo the General and the others had also set off for Spring God Lake before they were completely eroded, with the aim of finding the so-called Elysium Tower to extend their lives.

Looking back now, the Marquis's mansion transported a heavy coffin bound by hemp ropes in the middle of the night, so it was reasonable to say that the coffin contained the Marquis of Zhennan.

Seeing Jiangcheng's hesitation, Shao Tong suddenly smiled. "You thought of it too, didn't you? We also suspect that the coffin contains the Marquis of Zhennan. If it's really him, then we have to be careful when we go to Spring God Lake next."

But hearing these words, Jiangcheng's expression changed slightly. "How do you know we're going to Spring God Lake?" Lu Qin and Shao Tong obviously hadn't been in contact with the people from the Marquis's mansion, and they had only just received the news from General Yuwen.

Noticing Jiangcheng's alertness, Lu Qin quickly explained: "Before we came to find you, we went back to the Marquis's mansion. Our intention was to test the waters, but the people in the Marquis's mansion were very clean, leaving no traces. We almost got discovered while looking for clues, by General Yuwen. He told us that tonight's task was to move the spirit, to move the spirit of the late madam."