Wait a minute, where is my master?

The night watchman, at the prison.

When Jin Xu arrived with a fish and a dog, he discovered that not only was Prime Minister Qin present.

Xia Yunzhao was even there as well.

After all, it had been several days since they last met.

The Seventh Princess did take some time during these three days to visit the little Taoist at his residence, but at that time he was telling fortunes on the street, so she missed him.

"Little Taoist, weren't you telling fortunes on the streets recently? What brings you here?"

It was quite unexpected for Xia Yunzhao to encounter Jin Xu in this prison as well.

Upon hearing this, the little Taoist pointed at Prime Minister Qin and the female night watchman who had been shackled with prohibits, and he began to explain.

"I ran into this lady on the street coming to have her fortune told, then Prime Minister Qin showed up. I was curious about her situation, so I came to see what was happening. Miss Yunzhao, why are you here?"

The Seventh Princess wore a trace of melancholy on her face, and after listening to Jin Xu, she nodded slightly.

Then she transmitted her voice, "I've known Commander Kui since I was a child; she even taught me magic and watched me grow up. So today, when I heard she was involved with the Demon Sect, I rushed over here immediately."

After transmitting her voice, she turned to Prime Minister Qin and said, "Prime Minister, Commander Kui has always been utterly loyal to Great Xia. Could there be some misunderstanding here?"

The Prime Minister did not refute what Xia Yunzhao had said, but instead ushered the little Taoist and the three women to a seat on the side.

Then he had his subordinates bring in two people wrapped in prohibited chains, as if to conduct the interrogation right here in the prison.

Once the three were positioned, Prime Minister Qin pulled out a thick stack of case files.

"Since July 14th in my supervision of Shangjing City, anyone entering or leaving the city must be checked for a pass Token. However, upon investigation, from July 27th to today, there have been one thousand five hundred instances where you three have allowed caravans to pass and issued passes without authorization. Can you explain why?"

Upon hearing the Prime Minister's words, two of them appeared utterly befuddled.

Kui Lei spoke up, "I report to the Prime Minister that as far as my memory serves, I have never done such things, but... I checked the work files of the past few days and found that indeed many Tokens were issued under my name. Thus, I suspect I might have been subjected to some technique of the Demon Sect."

This statement took Prime Minister Qin by surprise.

Shangjing is a large city, six or seven times the size of Gusu City. The number of people within and the daily traffic in and out of the city is staggering.

One thousand five hundred may seem like a lot, but when spread over three days and divided among eight city gates, the impact is diluted. Moreover, with the recent coronation ceremony approaching, the number of trading caravans coming and going is naturally high.

Therefore, it was not until today that the monitoring official noticed the anomaly.

When the monitoring official detected the anomaly and conducted a thorough inspection, he discovered that the issue even involved the deputy commander of the night watchmen and two deputy commanders of the city defense army; knowing that the matter was beyond his authority, he promptly reported it to Xia Yunzhao's father.

This current Emperor of Great Xia, with his incredibly low profile, entrusted the matter to Prime Minister Qin for investigation.

Initially, when Prime Minister Qin received this task, he thought it was just a few people trying to gain more cultivation resources because of the recent strict supervision, and he didn't suspect any involvement with the Demon Sect.

However, when he had his men intercept a few caravan parties holding Tokens issued by the three, the situation took a turn for the worse.

Prime Minister Qin immediately reported the presence of Demon Sect disciples in the caravans to Xia Xuanmin and began preparations to capture the three involved.

To Prime Minister Qin's surprise, who was prepared for a fierce battle, the three came to the prison willingly; none resisted, and the first two looked exceptionally bewildered.

It wasn't until Kui Lei said these words that he realized the crux of the matter.

"You two, do you also not recall issuing these Tokens?"

Prime Minister Qin asked the other two with a stern expression.

"We report to the Prime Minister, we have no knowledge of these Tokens at all! Moreover, we and our ancestors have lived in Shangjing City for generations, how could we possibly betray Great Xia and collude with the Demon Sect?"

The bewildered duo defended themselves.

The Prime Minister looked at the two and then at Deputy Commander Kui,

After pondering for a moment, he said solemnly to the bewildered pair, "Since you both insist so convincingly, I have a proposition. I happened to have learned the Confucian 'Truth-Telling Skill' when I was young, and since both of you are in the Void Refinement Realm, you meet the conditions for the use of the 'Truth-Telling Skill.' If your conscience is clear, I will use this technique to prove your innocence."

"We implore you, Prime Minister, to prove our innocence!"

The two of them were visibly moved upon hearing this.

They had been inexplicably brought to this prison and accused of colluding with the Demon Sect with damning evidence against them, not knowing what to do. Now that Prime Minister Qin was willing to use the Confucian 'Truth-Telling Skill' to help prove their innocence, it couldn't be better.

The female night watchman beside them showed a look of envy when she heard this; she was at the Divinity Transformation Realm, and so was the Prime Minister, not meeting the requirement of the 'Truth-Telling Skill' that the subject must be at least one realm lower than the caster. Therefore, this means of proving innocence was inapplicable to her.

"Good, then I shall use this 'Truth-Telling Skill' to prove the innocence of you two!"

Seeing the two agree, Prime Minister Qin immediately pulled out a jade brush with wolf hair from his storage treasure.

With his right hand holding the brush, he wrote in the air. The brushing flowed like a dragon and snake, forming a large character for "faith" from the tip of the brush.

The character for "faith" in the void split into two under his control of spiritual power, flying towards the forehead of the two commanders in the Void Refinement Realm.

Once the characters were fully absorbed into the forehead, the Prime Minister spoke up in a loud voice, "Do you two have collusion with the Demon Sect?"

"No."

The two commanders answered in unison.

"Then did you two issue these Tokens?"

"No."

"Did either of you privately allow caravans to leave the city?"

"No."

"What did the two of you have for breakfast this morning?"

"????"

Both were stunned, glanced at Prime Minister Qin, then at the gray-haired girl who had suddenly asked the question.

It was useless for anyone other than the Truth-Telling Skill practitioner to ask questions, so they did not respond.

Prime Minister Qin also turned his head toward the Husky who had suddenly interjected.

"Ahem, well, sir, please continue. I just couldn't help myself."

Little White said sheepishly, feeling the eyes of everyone upon her.

Jin Xu, embarrassed, stood up to apologize to the Left Minister, then solemnly conveyed to Little White, "From today on, you're not allowed to eat for a month."

"Temple Master, I was wrong!"

...

With this little interlude, plus the fact that the two were indeed proven not to have colluded with the Demon Sect, the atmosphere in the prison relaxed quite a bit.

But the hard evidence was there, the entry and exit records and the token were genuine.

So the doubts in the case still existed. After listening to Commander Kui's words, the Left Minister proceeded to check their Sea of Consciousness carefully, and found no problem.

It made sense, after all, Prime Minister Qin was at the Divinity Transformation Stage Seventh Level, and the Deputy Commander was at the Fifth Level—there wasn't a huge gap between the two.

If Commander Kui didn't find any issue, naturally, the Left Minister wouldn't either.

With no other option, Prime Minister Qin had no choice but to request the presence of Xia Xuanmin.

White hair evident of his advanced age, Emperor Xia arrived, exchanged brief pleasantries with everyone, and after listening to the Left Minister and the three, he didn't examine them but let out a deep sigh.

Then, he instructed Prime Minister Qin to retrieve the three's travel records for the past two hundred years to check for any instances of injuries upon their return.

Sure enough, upon examining the archives, the Left Minister found that a hundred years ago, all three indeed had records of returning heavily wounded, not just once but multiple times.

However, it was common for cultivators in the Cultivation World to be injured, so no one had taken notice at the time.

With this discovery, Emperor Xia looked at the three with a trace of pity in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, why do you sigh?"

Prime Minister Qin was a subject promoted by Emperor Xia during his reign, so he always referred to him as Your Majesty.

"I sigh for the Great Xia's subjects who have been harmed by wicked beings!"

As Emperor Min uttered these words, the expressions of the three still in chains changed.

The statement didn't sound promising.

"May I ask what you mean by that, Emperor Min?"

Commander Kui's face showed fear, and she asked softly.

Hearing his grandfather speak like that, Xia Yunzhao became anxious, "Grandpa, Sister Kui has watched over me as I grew up, you..."

The Seventh Princess initially wanted Emperor Xia to save Commander Kui, but the words halted as she suddenly remembered her grandfather didn't have much longer to live, and she was choked up.

"Zhaoer, it's not that Grandpa won't help, but this matter... there's no cure."

Then, Emperor Min revealed what he knew about the Demon Sect's possession technique to everyone.

"This technique is extremely difficult to master, and once perfected, is very well concealed, hard to detect. I had thought that no one in the current era's Demon Sect had mastered it; I didn't expect that someone had started cultivating it a hundred years ago," Emperor Xia lamented.

The three by the side were already dumbfounded, clearly possessing their own consciousness, yet were they truly the Demon Sect's avatars?

"Emperor Min, could there be a mistake? I clearly have my own consciousness! There's also nothing wrong with my Sea of Consciousness! I even made slight progress in my realm recently! I..."

Commander Kui looked terrified; she couldn't believe that after such arduous cultivation, she had become an avatar of someone from the Demon Sect!

"The nefarious essence of this technique lies in the fact that as long as the master doesn't activate the avatar, it lives life as usual, completely unaware of its true nature."

Emperor Min explained.

Seeing Commander Kui looking utterly despondent, Xia Yunzhao wanted to rush over to comfort her, but was firmly held back by Jin Xu.

"Mr. Jin, I..."

"Don't move, Uncle Xia is right. I have just now carefully checked with the power of the Truth Perception from my Spiritual Eyes, and deep within her Sea of Consciousness, indeed, there is another person's mark."

Once the Taoist uttered these words, everyone looked at him.

Emperor Xia curiously asked, "Is that one of the three major powers of our Xia family's Dongxuan Spirit Vision that's reached great proficiency?"

Jin Xu quietly nodded, his deep eyes showing a hint of silver.

Previously, he had used a fortune-telling method to gauge her fortune, and now, after hearing Emperor Xia's words, he looked with Truth Perception and indeed discerned a clue.

As Emperor Min saw the appearance of the Taoist's eyes, he thought to himself.

"Isn't this technique something I just gave to Zhaoer a few days ago? And even if the Xia family's Dongxuan Spirit Vision were to reach great proficiency, it should not be able to detect such avatars, right?"

The Seventh Princess, seeing the Taoist nod, put aside her shock at his rapid mastery of the technique and asked urgently, "Taoist, can you save Sister Kui?"

On the other hand, Commander Kui, who looked as if her soul had left her, also wore a glimmer of hope as she looked towards Jin Xu.