Chapter 1526 — Xiao Qing's Plea

The Xuan Dan Sect's ways betrayed the mind to become the first house of the martial world, and though all saw it plainly, none had the strength to stop it. With so many backers, who could stand against it? Those fighters and sects that had taken its favors would, for the sake of better pills, be the first to turn cudgel for it!

The Young Master of the Xuan Dan Sect had but lately come of age, yet wives and concubines already thronged about him. Betrothal gifts had gone out to many sects and houses, seeking to wed the young daughters of their lines, and above all those maidens of talent and power were never to be let slip!

If he should truly have his way, then in the next generation of the Xuan Dan Sect, save for those children fit to become high-grade alchemists, all the rest would set foot upon the path of cultivation, and one need hardly guess how mighty the future of the Xuan Dan Sect would be!

Thus any clear-eyed man could see that the Xuan Dan Sect was laying a design, a very great design, and the so-called youthful gallantry of its Young Master was but a masking pretext and nothing more!

"I hope that after the Heaven Rank Convention a few more may step into the Heavenly Way, so that the Xuan Dan Sect may be held in check. If it is left to grow on..." The Ice Palace Master said no more, yet the meaning in her words was clear enough.

"Then I think we might make the trial. That Ling Yi spoke with such assurance. If he can truly fetch us an alchemist of the third rank, it would be a great blessing to our Ice Palace! If we draw him to us well, the power of our Palace will grow also." Xiao Qing said, "Palace Master, what do you think?"

"Assurance? Is wild boasting to count as assurance? Unless he can bring forth solid proof that he can find an alchemist, why should we believe him?" The Ice Palace Master shook her head. "The Fire Spirit Sacred Fruit is of like moment to our Ice Palace. Though two fruits have ripened in this cycle, you and I must yet go into closed seclusion to ponder in welcome of the coming Heaven Rank Convention, and I fear that by then..."

"Alas!" Xiao Qing sighed and said no more.

She knew as well that the Ice Palace Master spoke the truth. Though there were two Fire Spirit Sacred Fruits, they were still precious beyond measure.

...

In the office of Qiu Lingshan at the Songshan City Police Bureau.

The robberies had been quiet for but a few days when trouble came again!

Before this, after Qiu Lingshan had set the whole force to patrol, order in Songshan City had much mended, and the robber who struck everywhere had struck no more! Yet Qiu Lingshan rather wished he would strike again, for she had posted men at the doors of every great market and bank, so that the moment the brigand acted he could be taken on the spot!

But the brigand seemed to have seen through it all, and had stopped his crimes!

Stop he did, and what followed was to crack the case. From Donghai too came several experts to study the facts together and to sketch the build and features of the suspect.

Even as all were poring over the case, fresh trouble came!

Upon the streets of Songshan City, criminal offenses suddenly grew many! The culprits, all masked, either robbed guiltless folk in the street or fondled, teased, and even ravished young girls!

And by the victims' telling, the culprits in these cases matched most closely in build and looks the culprit of the former robberies! It could all but be settled that one and the same man had done them!

But this puzzled Qiu Lingshan all the more. Of the former cases it might be said the culprit was after wealth, for banks and great markets hold much ready money, and one stroke could bring a rich haul! Yet how much could these guiltless folk in the street have in their pockets?

By what was set down in the records, these guiltless victims had commonly lost some thousands of yuan, the most no more than a hundred thousand and odd, the least but a few hundred!

This left Qiu Lingshan and the several case experts perplexed. What did the suspect mean to do? Was the money from before not enough? That he should now lay hands upon guiltless folk? Yet how much could such folk have?

All the wealth he had robbed from guiltless folk together did not pass three hundred thousand yuan, not even a fraction of what he had taken in any one of his former crimes. What was this man thinking?

"Detective Wang, what do you take to be this suspect's design in acting so?" After Liu Wangli had laid out the case, he turned to ask a middle-aged man beside Qiu Lingshan.

This middle-aged man was a famed private detective of Donghai City, called Wang Hekan, of great repute in Donghai. This time he had come as a case expert to aid the Songshan City Police Bureau in breaking the case.

"By what we have so far, there are two possibilities. The first is that this suspect is provoking the police! For by his past several cases, he is not short of money now, and he could not possibly have set his eyes upon the money of these guiltless folk, for the sums are truly too small!" Wang Hekan said. "By his former manner of crime, this suspect acts with exceeding ruthlessness, so we cannot rule out that he is provoking us!"

"That is possible enough, yet if this man was after wealth, why provoke us?" Qiu Lingshan felt by instinct that this reason hardly stood, for it was somewhat beyond belief!

"That I do not know. At present we are but making a first inquiry. This is only a guess!" Wang Hekan said. "The second possibility is that this man is a psychopath, that there is something amiss in his mind. Even as you, Captain Song, have said, if this man was after wealth, why provoke us? I think there may be something amiss in his mind. This suspect is a psychopathic criminal."

"A psychopath..." Qiu Lingshan nodded. "That does hold. This man's victims are picked at random, not stalked long beforehand. He simply seizes upon whom he meets in the street, and that adds to the hardness of our case!"

"Yes, with such random striking no motive can be found, and it is hard to fix upon a suspect!" Wang Hekan said. "Still, I counsel that we may strengthen our patrols!"

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