“Willingly? You were strangers. Why would it willingly give you its core?”
“Maybe it felt we were alike in our misfortune. It said its core was mostly destroyed, that it wouldn’t live long anyway, but it could use it to save my life.”
Bai Xiuming watched Achan with a faint smile, waiting until she finished before speaking slowly, “This is the first time I’ve heard of such a kind-hearted demon, and you just happened to meet it.”
As he spoke, he circled the iron frame slowly, the whip’s tip dragging on the ground, making a faint scraping sound.
Achan sensed him move behind her. The thought of that excruciating pain striking again made her body tremble involuntarily, but she gritted her teeth and said, “Maybe I’m just lucky.”
“Once you’re in my Mirror Division, it means your luck… isn’t so great.”
As his words fell, the sound of tearing fabric rang out. The short robe, already pierced by the arrow, was torn open further, along with the inner layer.
Though the interrogation room had a burning brazier, a chill seeped into her clothes, and Achan’s body tensed instantly.
Bai Xiuming looked at the smooth, pale back beneath the tattered robe, narrowing his eyes. Not a single scar remained.
“Now, tell me why the Ji Chan I investigated seems so different from you.” The barbed whip lightly brushed her spine. “I don’t like people who keep lying to me. Understood?”
Achan took a sharp breath, her lips twitching slightly. “I wouldn’t dare deceive you, my lord. After eating its core, I gained some of its memories. Maybe merging with those memories changed me.”
“Is that so?” Bai Xiuming stepped back in front of her. “But I think it’s more likely that a fox demon possessed a human body, trying to deceive me.”
“You think I’m the fox demon?” Achan gave a bitter laugh, her eyes reddening.
“Aren’t you?”
“You’re just like my father, finding ways to smear me. If you want me dead, why bother with excuses?”
As she spoke, tears fell like a string of broken pearls, dripping from her sharp chin onto her body. Yet she only stared fixedly at Bai Xiuming.
“Even if I leave here alive, who knows how many days I have left? My mother is dead, my father wants me dead too. I figure, if I die by your hand, at least someone will collect my body.”
Bai Xiuming gazed silently at the woman who kept pleading for death, suddenly reminded of someone from many years ago who had begged him to kill her.
She clearly didn’t want to die, yet could only beg for death.
The memory made Bai Xiuming falter for a moment before he quickly regained his composure.
He thought to himself that this person was very different from the one in his memory.
It was clear she was doing everything she could to survive, which was why she could cry so… captivatingly.
His fingertips twitched, and he finally spoke, “Someone.”
“My lord.” Two jailers appeared outside the interrogation room.
“Lock her up.”
“Yes, sir.”
After being released from the iron frame, Achan’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. The whip’s lash had nearly taken half her life. But at least, her life was spared.
The two jailers each grabbed an arm, dragging her to a pitch-black cell, then swiftly locked the door and left.
The cell was empty, without even the straw found in ordinary prisons. Achan curled up on the ground, enduring the pain from her wounds and the cold of the floor.
She was too weak to notice anything else, unaware that after she was locked in, Bai Xiuming stood outside, watching her.
He rubbed the ring on his finger, his doubts about Ji Chan still unresolved.
After standing for a while, he quietly gave a few instructions to a jailer beside him before turning to leave.
Leaving the Suppression Prison, Bai Xiuming headed to the northwest corner of the Mirror Division’s headquarters, to the Library Tower. On the top floor, in a small archive room, he found an elderly man with white hair and beard, trembling as he held a brush.
The old man saw Bai Xiuming and set down his brush, attempting to stand, but was stopped by his voice.
“No need for formalities.”
The old man sat back down but still said, “Zhan Yi, former keeper of the Library Tower, greets the Chief Enforcer. What matter does my lord wish to investigate?”
Bai Xiuming didn’t waste words. “Can a human survive swallowing a demon core?”
Zhan Yi pondered for a moment before answering, “In theory, no. The power of demons and humans is vastly different, and they rarely merge.”
“Rarely means it’s possible?” Bai Xiuming caught the hint of uncertainty in his words.
“You are perceptive, my lord. My ancestor recorded in his notes that if a demon willingly offers its core to a human, the human can extend their life by consuming it. But in my hundred-plus years, I’ve never seen it myself.”
“Do you believe your ancestor’s notes are true?”
“My ancestor’s records were likely based on firsthand experience. When I was young, I collected supernatural tales from various regions, many involving demons giving their cores to loved ones. They can’t all be baseless.”
Seeing Bai Xiuming frown slightly, Zhan Yi continued unhurriedly, “I once studied several demon cores. Beyond their wild demonic energy, they indeed contain immense vitality. If the demonic energy could be purged, what remains would be the world’s greatest life-extending medicine.”
“Have you tried it?” Bai Xiuming’s interest was piqued.
Zhan Yi chuckled. “I haven’t, but someone else did it for me.”
He squinted, recalling, “In the previous dynasty, a Demon God Sect emerged in Tongzhou, pursuing godhood through demon cores. The sect members implanted cores in their bodies. Those who survived became demonized, causing plenty of trouble for the court.”
“What happened next? Did the previous emperor send troops to destroy the sect?”
“No,” Zhan Yi said with a laugh. “Before the emperor could act, the sect’s leader died.”
“How?”
“The leader heard a Third Realm black turtle’s core could extend life for a thousand years. He hunted one down and claimed to his followers he’d purged its demonic energy, saying the sect would achieve immortality. Then he swallowed the core in public. A Fourth Realm master exploded into dust, taking the sect’s entire leadership with him.”
“The demonic energy wasn’t fully purged?”
“I don’t think so. That leader was at the Fourth Realm; he wouldn’t have misjudged. I’ve always believed a demon core is like a vital organ, containing their power, vitality, and perhaps even their consciousness. If they don’t want to be consumed, they’ll resist.”
Bai Xiuming nodded slightly, neither accepting nor rejecting the explanation.
“If someone luckily survived swallowing a core, could their personality change?”
“If, as I suspect, a core contains more than just power and vitality, it would certainly have an effect. But these are only guesses, with no evidence.”
“Does a demon possessing a human always trigger heavenly thunder?”
“Always, without exception,” Zhan Yi answered firmly.
Bai Xiuming stood. “Thank you for your insights today, Mr. Zhan.”
“Safe travels, my lord.”
Leaving the Library Tower, Bai Xiuming mulled over the day’s events.
Thunder had rolled over the capital tonight, clearly indicating a demon’s attempt at possession, but it never struck, meaning it hadn’t succeeded.
Whether the core Ji Chan spoke of was given out of pity or to repair her body for possession, she was the one who benefited.
As she said, her luck was pretty good.
After that night, Achan didn’t see Bai Xiuming again.
She remained locked in the cell, her wounds causing a fever. The jailers called a physician to treat her.
Later, when the physician noted her frail condition couldn’t withstand the cell’s chill, a jailer tossed her a thin blanket.
The physician visited for three consecutive days, leaving medicinal pills and saying little.
Achan felt some gratitude toward him. Without his intervention, her body might not have lasted until her release.
Unbeknownst to her, the physician went straight to the Mirror Division’s inner hall after leaving the prison.
“How is she?” Bai Xiuming asked, reviewing documents without looking up.
The physician stood respectfully at the door. “Reporting to the Chief Enforcer, the young lady has extremely poor constitution, with blocked meridians and no trace of demonic energy or demonization. Her body is weaker than an average person’s.”
“Understood. You may go.”
Three more days passed since the physician’s visits. For most, six days in the Suppression Prison would drive them to despair.
But Achan had always been patient. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have escaped a heavenly net to reach the capital.
This time, she waited patiently again.
On the seventh day, Feng Yang, the subordinate of that man, arrived.
Feng Yang ordered the jailers to open the cell and release her.
Despite seven days in the cell, Achan, though disheveled, wasn’t overly haggard.
Feng Yang, however, glanced at her once, quickly averted his eyes, and called for someone to bring a black cloak, which he tossed to her.
Achan, wrapped in the blanket these past days, had nearly forgotten her tattered clothes. A human girl would care about such things.
She fastened the cloak and tidied her hair before thanking Feng Yang. “Thank you for your kindness, my lord.”
“Don’t thank me. It was the Chief Enforcer’s orders. Let’s go.”
He led her out of the Suppression Prison and through the Mirror Division’s gates.
Just like that, she was released? Achan could hardly believe it.
She stood outside the Mirror Division for a moment, ensuring no one called her back, before determining her direction and heading toward Changping Lane.
Walking and resting, it took her a full hour to reach Ji Chan’s dwelling, a small, shuttered shop.
But not far from the shop stood a carriage, unmarked, not from the Jinyang Marquis Estate. Whose was it?
As she searched her memories, an elderly woman stepped down from the carriage, smiling warmly and approaching her.
“You must be Miss Chan. My lady heard you were taken by the Mirror Division for questioning and has been worried for days, sending me to wait for you here.”
Achan finally recalled who she was: Sun Mama, a servant of her aunt, Lady Xiao Lin.
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