Chapter 319
Chapter 319
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 319
>Chapter Title: The Embroideress
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“Hmm… this divination pattern…” Li Huowang frowned slightly as he examined the cracks on the skull, comparing them to the talisman booklet in his hand.
“Qian for Heaven, Heaven Wind Encountering, Heaven Mountain Pursuing.” That was the hexagram Li Huowang had divined.
Yet strangely, the book didn’t record how to interpret the hexagram. It only said to burn the talisman paper to ash again and swallow it.
Glancing at County Magistrate Lou waiting beside him, Li Huowang pondered for a moment before pulling out his fire striker from his robe and striking it hard against one corner of the yellow talisman.
As the talisman ignited in eerie green flames, Li Huowang instinctively tilted his neck back, feeling deeply uncomfortable all over.
Right after, he heard a faint, delicate voice speaking. But when he listened carefully, there was nothing.
The talisman burned up, and the remaining ashes didn’t scatter. Instead, they slowly twisted, gradually forming a lump of black ash that resembled a shriveled infant.
Li Huowang hesitated for a moment as he stared at the thing in his hand, then tossed it into a cup of tea nearby and drained it in one gulp.
He stood there quietly waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.
At that moment, a rooster crowed outside, leaving Li Huowang and County Magistrate Lou staring at each other wide-eyed inside the room.
“Does this talisman booklet even work? Wasn’t it supposed to divine a hexagram? Where’s the hexagram?” Li Huowang wondered, a trace of doubt rising in his heart as he looked at the object in his hand.
Sensing Li Huowang’s frustration, County Magistrate Lou immediately said understandingly,
“Sir, you’ve been busy all day. Why not rest first?”
Li Huowang, who was in the thick of it, had no intention of resting. He frowned slightly and continued flipping through the talisman booklet.
But just then, a petite young girl walked in from the doorway, tugging lightly at County Magistrate Lou’s clothes.
“Daddy... why haven’t you slept again?”
Facing his daughter, County Magistrate Lou couldn’t bring himself to be stern. He quickly coaxed her gently.
“Aiya, good girl, go have breakfast with your mother first. Daddy will join you in a bit.”
“Mm~ I don’t wanna. That’s what you said yesterday too.” The girl acted coquettishly toward County Magistrate Lou affectionately. At that moment, a low shout startled both father and daughter, making them tremble.
Seeing Li Huowang approaching, County Magistrate Lou’s face instantly paled. He hurriedly pulled his daughter behind him.
“S-Sir, this is my daughter.”
Li Huowang shoved him aside and rushed to the girl. Under her shocked gaze, he yanked a colorful little cloth pouch from her waist.
Staring at the patterns on the pouch, he asked,
“Who made this?”
The patterns on the pouch matched part of the hexagram from before.
County Magistrate Lou’s daughter was clearly frightened by the fierce-looking man. She glanced at her father, and seeing he wasn’t coming to her rescue, her voice trembled as she said,
“My embroideress made this sachet for me.”
“Embroideress? Bring her here!” There was no way this world had such coincidences. Maybe the talisman really worked—this was the hexagram interpretation Li Huowang needed!
Soon, the so-called embroideress was dragged before Li Huowang by the bailiffs. She looked older than County Magistrate Lou’s daughter but appeared soft and frail, as if a gust of wind could topple her.
“You made this sachet?” Li Huowang held it up, questioning the woman.
“Mm.” The embroideress answered softly with downcast eyes, not daring to look up.
“Why is the bird on this sachet patterned like this?”
“It’s a mandarin duck...”
“I asked why you embroidered it like this!!” Li Huowang’s roar startled everyone present.
The embroideress looked on the verge of tears, her eyes brimming with them.
“M-Mandarin ducks... are always... embroidered like this.”
Li Huowang stood up and approached the embroideress. With each step, the sound of his sword rubbing against its sheath grew louder.
When the purple-tasseled sword was drawn, Li Huowang, radiating killing intent, became utterly terrifying in the eyes of everyone in the room.
Standing before the embroideress, the almost tangible pressure from him crushed her instantly.
“I don’t know! My grandma taught me to embroider it this way! Mandarin ducks have always been embroidered like this!” The embroideress sobbed on the floor, tears streaming down her face.
But then, the room fell silent. Whether it was the bailiff gripping his knife hilt or the clerk stroking his beard, everyone’s eyes widened at the embroideress.
The first half of her words sounded fine, but the second half came out in a man’s voice!
The bailiff nearby rushed forward first, groping the embroideress’s chest roughly. Then, with shock on his face, he turned to County Magistrate Lou.
“Sir! This woman’s got a dick!”
Hearing this, County Magistrate Lou was horrified and immediately looked toward his daughter.
Li Huowang grabbed the cross-dressing embroideress by the neck and slowly lifted him up.
“County Magistrate Lou, looks like we found the pervert defiling women!”
“Throw him in jail! Interrogate him!! Interrogate him hard!!” At this moment, County Magistrate Lou’s voice shook, his hands trembling uncontrollably.
Having finally found a lead, Li Huowang naturally wouldn’t let it go. He followed as the bailiffs escorted the “embroider male” to the prison.
Before long, the prison of Cangshui County echoed with the embroider male’s utterly miserable screams.
“Speak! Who are your accomplices? Where are they hiding now? Why are you stealing infants?!”
Looking at the red branding iron sizzling against skin and the whip soaking in the saltwater bucket, Li Huowang couldn’t help but frown.
“Enough, all of you withdraw,” he said, standing up and walking toward the disfigured embroider male.
Ignoring the branding iron the jailer offered with both hands, Li Huowang reached him and removed the conical hat from his head.
His wounds had healed quickly; most of the skin on his face was already mending. But in this state, Li Huowang looked even more horrifying.
The embroider male, exhausted from the torture, seemed to find new strength upon seeing Li Huowang’s face. He strained backward desperately, as if terrified Li Huowang would devour him.
“Clang clatter~” With the sound of metal clashing, Li Huowang’s pouches of torture tools slowly opened at his waist.
“Speak.”
“I really don’t know! I’m the one who raped women, I admit it! But stealing babies really wasn’t me!” The embroider male wet his pants in fear, but his words didn’t waver.
“Is that so?” Li Huowang selected a small saw from among them, pressed the man’s head against the wall with one hand, and began sawing left and right.
If his cries before had still sounded human, then for the next stretch, they turned into pure ghostly howls.
Half an hour later, Li Huowang chanted the Fire Robe Sutra to heal the barely breathing embroider male.
“Strange, why is that? This guy really doesn’t know?” Li Huowang was certain the man was telling the truth; even he might not have endured such torment.
“Could it be... that defiling women and stealing infants are two separate groups? They just happened at the same time, so people assumed they were connected?”
The thought made Li Huowang’s mood plummet. Another dead end.
For the first time, Li Huowang felt this case was so tricky. Regardless of the enemy’s strength, they were hiding and refusing to show, which was infuriating.
Only now did he realize that the Supervising Heaven Bureau’s work wasn’t quite what he’d imagined.
At that moment, his stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten for three meals; if he didn’t soon, his body would suffer.
Glancing once more at the unrecognizable embroider male, Li Huowang turned and headed out of the prison.
The stunned jailer saw Li Huowang leaving and, instead of seeing him off, kicked a nearby jail guard’s butt hard.
The panicked jail guard had no choice but to force a smile and respectfully escort Li Huowang.
“Take care, sir. Come visit anytime, sir. Sir, you’ve got such skilled hands!”
(End of chapter)