In this inner prison, year after year accumulated ice flows, already surpassing Chen Ji’s imagination. He hadn’t expected there to be so many ice flows inside this inner prison.

He walked along the corridor of the inner prison, seeing one after another ice flows merge into his body. The four lamps of furnace fire sealing his dantian were shaking and on the verge of falling.

The gray-white ice flows were like flood dragons, emitting roars that others couldn’t hear in this dim inner prison, like wronged souls long trapped in a cage, unwilling in their hearts and wanting to swallow Chen Ji whole.

In this mysterious world, they possessed power sufficient to override authority and force, yet now they were being gradually deprived.

Chen Ji could feel the cold air penetrating his five viscera and six bowels, but beside Yun Yang, he didn’t dare show any abnormality.

However, just as he and Yun Yang passed a cell, he saw an oil lamp base on the wall, yin-engraved with an Eight Trigrams array diagram.

Chen Ji suddenly recalled the oil residue lamps under the Eight Trigrams array diagrams he’d seen one by one when descending the stairs earlier. One lamp was one prison, the lamp not extinguished, the person not extinguished!

He quickly took down the oil lamp and held it in his hand.

In an instant, the ice flows in his dantian slowly receded like a tide.

Chen Ji slightly panted. Yun Yang surprisingly turned back and asked, “Why did you take this lamp?”

He replied, “This inner prison is too dim, I’m a little unaccustomed.”

Yun Yang sneered, “I didn’t expect that someone who dares to bargain with me is actually still afraid of the dark?”

Chen Ji didn’t answer. He was only thinking about a question: Could it be that after a person dies, the ice flows won’t dissipate? Judging from the quantity of ice flows just now, they had definitely accumulated for a very long time.

Even if the Secret Agent Department was heartless and ruthless, they wouldn’t kill so many people in a short period.

It was the effect of the Eight Trigrams array diagram!

Was the Inner Minister worried that if he killed too many people, he might be entangled by wronged souls, so he sought people to use the Eight Trigrams array diagram to detain all these souls in the inner prison? This was why so many ice flows had accumulated year after year.

Chen Ji even said breathlessly, “Master Yun Yang, give me the archives to look at. To find clues, it’s not necessary to find them from the current case. Perhaps many secrets are still hidden in past cases.”

Yun Yang gestured to the secret agents. “Give them to him!”

When the secret agents brought the archives, they were surprisingly contained in more than ten large wooden boxes.

Chen Ji casually took a book from inside, flipping through it while patrolling the inner prison.

Yun Yang sat by a table, drinking tea and waiting. The secret agents followed behind Chen Ji.

Chen Ji walked to the front of a cell door and asked, “Jia character twenty-seventh cell, previously imprisoned Yu State Assistant Minister Liu Yaozu? Where is that person now?”

The secret agent deliberated, not knowing how to address this masked youth in front of him. After a moment’s hesitation, he said lowly, “This… Master, the archives state ‘released,’ then they walked out of the inner prison alive. If nothing is written, then they died inside.”

Chen Ji confirmed that Liu Yaozu had died in the inner prison four years ago.

He walked to the front of another cell door. “Jia character twenty-eighth cell, imprisoned Luo City Craft Bureau Chief Official Chen Mingzhuo?”

“Also died.”

Afterward, Chen Ji no longer asked, only silently reciting in his heart:

“Jia character fifty-second cell, Gui De Prefecture Governor Xu Jiawen, died.”

“Yi character first cell, Ru Ning Prefecture Shang Cai County Magistrate Tian Hailong, died; Shang Cai County Vice Magistrate Xu Dehong, died…”

Counting carefully, some cells had one person die inside, while others had several.

Chen Ji became more and more alarmed the more he checked. The archives in his hand were like the Book of Life and Death in the Hall of Yan Wang.

He flipped through the archives again. This inner prison had once imprisoned some people from the martial world, some officials hidden in the market, but the cells where these people were located did not have ice flows surging out.

He inhaled deeply, finally obtaining the rule of ice flows.

Those who could produce ice flows after death had only one thing in common: they were officials!

…

…

The inner prison buried underground was like a huge graveyard, not knowing how many people had died in this dark place without daylight.

This was not the martial world, but a place to bury the martial world and the court.

Chen Ji stood in front of the cell, holding the opened archives in his hand, facing the dark cages in front.

He spent about an hour finally finishing looking through all the archives for the Jia and Yi character cells. There were still Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui left, but there was no need to look again.

Chen Ji even dared to boldly judge that the ice flows obtained that night in Late Star Garden were indeed from Quiet Consort’s fetus. Imperial family bloodlines were superior to others from birth.

At this moment, Chen Ji stood in this oppressive inner prison, only feeling somewhat absurd.

His cultivation path actually stood on the opposite side of the entire Ning Dynasty. To cultivate, he needed the deaths of officials and imperial family bloodlines!

From the emperor to minor officials, the Ning Dynasty held all the power of this dynasty.

And he was to be its enemy?

Yun Yang was right, it was indeed something that couldn’t be let out what his cultivation path was… It was indeed very dangerous.

Yun Yang sat by a table, crossing his legs and cracking melon seeds. Seeing Chen Ji stop and think in the corridor, he asked, “Found clues?”

Chen Ji returned from his deep thoughts. “Not yet.”

Yun Yang frowned. “I personally went to pick you up, wasting an hour back and forth. Now I’ve waited for you for another hour, and the result is you say no clues?”

Chen Ji had come for the ice flows and archives. He had obtained both, yet he couldn’t just leave like this.

He thought for a moment and asked, “How did Liu Shi Yu die? Did you all kill him?”

Yun Yang shook his head. “No, he couldn’t endure the torture and hanged himself.”

Chen Ji frowned. “His corpse is still in the inner prison?”

“Yes, you want to see?” Yun Yang became interested, throwing the melon seeds in his hand onto the table. “I’ll take you.”

Yun Yang led Chen Ji deeper into the inner prison. They actually descended several more stairs, passing through several layers, only then reaching the deepest place. Chen Ji could even hear the sound of an underground river flowing.

“There, right inside. Only Liu Shi Yu’s corpse is there,” Yun Yang said, holding a torch as he walked in.

Liu Shi Yu was about thirty years old, slender, with fair skin. His face was deadly pale, his tongue protruding, and he had lost control of his bowels and bladder.

These were typical signs of hanging, with no abnormality.

Chen Ji saw the corpse and held his breath, feeling uncomfortable in his heart.

Yun Yang mocked, “I thought you were truly omnipotent. How can you not even look at a corpse?”

Chen Ji calmed down. “Master Yun Yang, being able to indifferently view the corpse of one’s own kind is not something worth boasting about… Liu Shi Yu didn’t commit suicide, he was killed to silence him.”

Yun Yang shook his head. “This time you’re wrong. I’ve killed many people, so I have more experience in this matter. All his death signs are those of hanging: deadly pale face, protruding tongue, and loss of bowel and bladder control. This point cannot be wrong. You might think, was he strangled and then hung up? No, strangled people have a crimson purple face. I’m familiar with this too.”

“Theoretically, Master Yun Yang is not wrong,” Chen Ji nodded.

“Hm?” Yun Yang didn’t understand.

Chen Ji said, “But these can all be faked.”

The cause of death by hanging is the blockage of the neck artery, leading to brain hypoxia and death.

Due to the instantaneous blockage of the neck artery, the veins can still temporarily function, so people who are hanged will have a deadly pale face, while those who are strangled will have a crimson purple face.

The person who killed Liu Shi Yu to silence him must have known some principles, so they faked the appearance of hanging: the tongue can be pulled out, acupuncture can cause loss of bowel and bladder control, and strangling the carotid sinus can cause a deadly pale face.

The opponent was a professional killer who specialized in faking suicides, but they missed one detail: the feet.

Chen Ji explained, “When people are hanged, their tiptoes are drooping, almost perpendicular to the ground. After two hours, rigor mortis will set in, and even if put down, they will maintain that position. But look at Liu Shi Yu. Before being strangled, his legs struggled and kicked, and his two feet are fixed in different directions.”

Yun Yang showed a thoughtful expression after listening. “Is that so… Go, back to the Jia level, bring a death row prisoner over, and we’ll know by trying!”

Chen Ji and the others returned to the upper level. He saw two secret agents drag a death row prisoner over.

That death row prisoner hadn’t been hanged yet, but he had already wet his pants.

Yun Yang sat by the table, cracking melon seeds and mocking, “These are the civil officials of our Ning Dynasty. On the surface, they look iron-boned, but in reality, they can’t withstand a single blow.”

Chen Ji hesitated. “Master Yun Yang, what was his crime?”

“Colluding with the enemy and betraying the country, secretly forging household registers and travel documents for Jing Dynasty spies,” Yun Yang turned his head and said to the secret agents, “Hang him from the roof. I want to observe!”

Chen Ji wanted to say something but finally chose to remain silent.

The next moment. The secret agents used a rope to loop the death row prisoner’s neck and hang him from the roof, kicking away the stool under his feet.

In just a few short seconds, the death row prisoner became completely still.

Everyone just waited like this, the corpse suspended in front of them, while Yun Yang seemed as if nothing had happened, drinking tea and cracking melon seeds, as if it wasn’t a person being hanged, but a pig.

Chen Ji only focused on flipping through the archives, using this to pass the time.

Two hours later, the secret agents took the corpse down from the roof. Indeed, as Chen Ji had said, the tiptoes were straight.

Yun Yang clapped his hands in praise. “Previously, we only hung people up, but never took them down before. We actually didn’t notice this detail!”

Chen Ji calmly said, “Someone wanted to kill and silence him, which means there is still a big fish behind Liu Shi Yu. The Liu family is not the only one colluding with the enemy. Both the second house’s Liu Mingxian and the first house’s Liu Mingde are under suspicion.”

Yun Yang frowned. “Liu Gun will return to Luo City in a few days. In this situation without evidence, provoking the Minister of Personnel is not giving myself trouble? You don’t want to trick me into a fire pit, do you?”

In the room, Chen Ji held the oil residue lamp, the firelight constantly flickering in his eyes. “How could I? I still rely on Master Yun Yang to promote me. Just earlier, Master Yun Yang also talked about the harm Jing Dynasty spies cause to frontline warriors. At this time, why are you again wisely protecting yourself?”

Yun Yang sighed. “You always need to learn from experience. Previously, I only knew how to kill. I just got the Twelve Zodiac positions half a year ago. How pitiful if I lose it… Officialdom is not easy.”

Chen Ji looked at his opponent and sincerely asked, “Master Yun Yang and Master Jiao Tu are skilled in killing. Master Inner Minister is extremely clever. Why would he send you all to do things you are not skilled in?”

Yun Yang was puzzled. “Yes… Could it be that Master Inner Minister originally hoped to use our killing nature to kill the Liu family? Master Inner Minister sent us here just to kill people, so what should I do…”

He subconsciously picked up the teapot, wanting to pour Chen Ji a cup of tea, but then thought again. Wrong, I only poured for Master Inner Minister before!

He put the teapot back on the table. “But now, even though we know someone killed Liu Shi Yu to silence him, it’s still very difficult to grasp the Liu family’s handle. How should I continue the investigation?”

Chen Ji shook his head. “Currently, there are too few clues. I also have no good suggestions. It’s just, Master Yun Yang, don’t you feel that old master Liu’s death was too suspicious? As soon as he died, you all immediately fell into a passive state. My master was invited to diagnose him, but his carriage broke down halfway and he simply didn’t see old master Liu.”

A flash of lightning struck Yun Yang’s mind. “Old master Liu is very likely not dead!”