Chapter 223: Family Shame Must Not Be Aired in Public

Inside the prison, flames leapt from a brazier, casting the torture chamber in a sinister glow. Wu Tiannan hung his head where he was bound to the rack, looking barely alive. Blood covered him from head to toe. His once-fine clothes were torn to rags, exposing bloodied wounds beneath. An interrogation had taken place here, with torture to match.

Once Shao Wubo and Shao Fubo fell, how many people could the brothers possibly have under them? Lingbo Residence knew their circles all too well. It did not take long to root out the people who had been hiding Wu Tiannan.

Given the circumstances, after nearly getting Shao Pingbo killed and then falling into the hands of Lingbo Residence, there was no chance Wu Tiannan would be treated kindly. Creak! The iron door opened with a harsh scrape, and Shao Sansheng walked in.

Now that he had confirmed Shao Pingbo was safe for the time being, he finally had the attention to spare for other matters.

The man overseeing the interrogation turned, saw who had arrived, and hurried over to greet him with cupped hands. "Third Master!"

Shao Sansheng glanced toward the man on the torture rack and frowned. "Why haven't I received an answer yet? What's going on?"

The interrogator looked embarrassed. "Third Master, this is a little unexpected. That pretty-faced fellow isn't quite the weakling you described. He didn't spill everything the moment we squeezed him. His mouth is remarkably hard. No matter what we do, he refuses to confess."

"Oh?" Shao Sansheng was genuinely surprised. A pampered young wastrel had bones this hard? He could actually withstand the punishments used here?

He found that difficult to believe, so he strode farther in and stopped before the rack. After studying Wu Tiannan's miserable condition, he reached out and prodded at several wounds. There was no mistake. They had indeed used severe torture.

Real surprise appeared in Shao Sansheng's eyes. Unconcerned by the filth, he lifted Wu Tiannan's chin, pinched his cheeks, and turned his face from side to side, taking a proper look at the man.

The interrogator knew what he suspected. To prove that his men were not simply incompetent, he cupped his hands and said, "Third Master, please step aside for a moment."

Shao Sansheng glanced back at him, released Wu Tiannan, and stepped away.

The interrogator immediately waved to his men. "Give him something extra."

Someone at the side brought over a bucket of salt water and ladled it out, splashing scoop after scoop over Wu Tiannan.

The instant the brine touched his torn flesh, Wu Tiannan's dazed body went rigid and he snapped awake. The chains binding him rattled without pause as he trembled. A muffled groan of agony escaped him, and he nearly ground his teeth to pieces.

The interrogator barked, "Are you going to talk or not?"

Wu Tiannan's rigid body gradually slackened. Panting heavily, he said, "I've told you already. I don't know anything. You've arrested the wrong man."

From the beginning, he had known there was risk in becoming involved in something like this. He simply had not expected that risk to arrive so quickly.

The reason he refused to confess was that he still held out hope. If he could endure until Shao Pingbo fell, he would still have a chance to rise. The more stubbornly he held on, the less Second Young Master and Third Young Master would mistreat him afterward. With something to hope for, a man could naturally endure a little more. Besides, he still harbored feelings for Tao Yan'er. He did not want to betray her and drag her into this.

"Still trying to play stubborn!" The interrogator sneered, turned to the brazier, pulled out a red-hot branding iron, and strode back, ready to ram it against Wu Tiannan's flesh.

Wu Tiannan painfully closed his eyes and braced himself. He had already suffered this once before.

At the side, Shao Sansheng reached out and stopped the interrogator. He seemed to have noticed something. With a wave of his hand, he ordered, "Take him down. He's coming with me." With that, he turned and left.

The men immediately obeyed, releasing Wu Tiannan from the prison. A carriage was waiting outside. It took him directly to a hall inside the Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence. Three corpses lay within the hall: Madam Ruan and her two sons. Shao Sansheng gestured, and his men dragged Wu Tiannan forward so he could get a good look. The interrogator was the first to react in shock at the sight of the three bodies.

The Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence had temporarily sealed off news of the deaths, so he had not known.

When Wu Tiannan saw the ashen faces and staring eyes of the dead Shao brothers, he was struck dumb. "How could this happen... How could this happen..."

He had never imagined the struggle among the Shao brothers could be so ruthless. Men he had seen alive and well during the day were now corpses. His last shred of hope collapsed. His will broke in an instant, and panic completely took hold of him.

Shao Sansheng looked at him coldly from the side. "What do you think you are, daring to involve yourself in something like this? I don't know whether you arranged matters for your family beforehand. If you didn't, then by now everyone in your household back in Pingchuan County should already be in our hands. Cooperate properly and I may spare you, along with your family. Otherwise, your entire household can go keep them company." He lifted his chin toward the corpses of Madam Ruan and her sons.

"Third Master, spare me! I'll talk... I'll talk..." Wu Tiannan gave in on the spot. At that moment, even his beloved Tao Yan'er was finally thrown to the back of his mind.

Before long, a squad escorted Wu Tiannan at speed to the house where Tao Jun and his younger sister had been staying.

The place had long since been abandoned. There was no one left to find. Only then did Wu Tiannan finally believe Shao Sansheng's words: he truly had been used.

Only now did he realize that he had actually fallen for the legendary "beauty trap." He had always heard such things only in stories. Never had he imagined anyone would use one on him, much less that he would be important enough to receive such treatment.

Covered in wretched wounds, he stood inside the empty house and burst into sobs.

The next day, the Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence announced the deaths of Madam Ruan and her sons. It did not say that Shao Pingbo had killed them, only that they had died as a result of assassins infiltrating the residence. The news shook the entire city.

For a time, celebrations great and small throughout the Beizhou Prefectural Capital were suspended or postponed. White mourning dress filled the streets and alleys, and entertainment houses of every kind shut their doors as well.

In a valley outside Qingshan Commandery City, beneath a waterfall, Niu Youdao stood atop a rock and let the torrent pound down upon him.

Under the rushing water, he swayed slowly from side to side with his eyes closed, moving within the curtain of water as he felt the continuous force scour his body and sensed how that force changed with every shift in his balance.

These days, he stood beneath the waterfall for a full two hours every day, combining the experience with the mental method of the Qiankun Art. When the wind rose, he stood in it and felt it assault him. When rain fell, he placed himself beneath it and accepted its nourishment. At dawn he bathed in the morning glow; at night he contemplated the stars. His skin had darkened considerably.

It was the dullest, most monotonous method of cultivation possible, and also the slowest. He could not even feel himself making progress. Day after day, he simply repeated the same tedious things. Yuan Gang would certainly never have put up with such boredom, but Niu Youdao endured the loneliness day after day.

Nor had this period of cultivation been entirely fruitless. Within that desolation, Niu Youdao had already tasted the faintest flash of insight, like feeling a single thread of rain strike his face in the middle of a desert. It seemed to give him a direction.

The feeling was like searching through an endless desert with no hope in sight, looking for a rain cloud. He believed that if a great rain could finally fall, then the barren desert would turn green and beautiful flowers would bloom. The rain was not in Heaven, but in the heart. What he needed was a rain within the heart. He believed that if his understanding became deep enough, even that numb and unfeeling heart would eventually change.

Yuan Fang floated down from the cliff and landed beside the waterfall. "Master Dao!"

Niu Youdao's brows stirred where he swayed beneath the cascade. He knew Yuan Fang would not interrupt his cultivation without reason. In a flash, he burst through the curtain of water and landed on the bank, mist rising from his body. Once he had dried himself, Yuan Fang handed him a decoded secret message.

Niu Youdao read it and frowned. Gradually, a thoughtful look appeared on his face. At last he tore the message apart and shook his head with a rueful smile. "I'm afraid Shao Pingbo may have escaped this calamity."

Yuan Fang had also read the message. It mentioned only the assassination of Madam Ruan and her sons, without describing the other developments in detail.

In truth, that was because the Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence had sealed off the news rather than airing the family's shame in public. The Shangqing Sect knew nothing about what had actually happened inside the Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence, and neither Song Shu nor Chen Guishuo knew. Lu Shengzhong knew even less. None of them had any idea what had truly taken place inside the Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence in Beizhou.

Whether it was Lu Shengzhong or Chen Guishuo, both secretly sent their intelligence to Wei Duo for consolidation and forwarding. Neither man could conveniently use a Goldenwing to send messages under Shao Pingbo's nose, whereas Wei Duo could freely release a Goldenwing under cover of the Shangqing Sect.

Of course, neither Lu Shengzhong nor Chen Guishuo currently knew that Wei Duo belonged to Niu Youdao's side, and Wei Duo rarely showed himself outside while at the Shangqing Sect.

That was why Yuan Fang found the situation somewhat strange. "Did Lu Shengzhong botch the job?"

Niu Youdao shook his head. "No. He did very well. To get this far was already more than good enough."

This was no empty praise. Niu Youdao had been waiting all along for Shao Pingbo to make his move. The moment the Ice and Snow Pavilion reacted, Lu Shengzhong had to act at once.

That demand had actually been extremely harsh. The Provincial Provincial Inspector's Residence was not a place Lu Shengzhong could enter whenever he pleased, nor were the Shao brothers men he could meet whenever he wished. For Lu Shengzhong to deliver the situation to the brothers the moment he received his instructions had already been very difficult.

Most importantly, all his preparations beforehand had to remain hidden from Shao Pingbo. Even so, Lu Shengzhong had perfectly carried out Niu Youdao's intent. To say after all that that Lu Shengzhong had failed would have been unreasonable.

Yuan Fang was even more puzzled. He had read the message himself. "Then how does Master Dao know Shao Pingbo may have escaped?"

Niu Youdao sighed. "It's simple. If Shao Pingbo were dead, the Shao family wouldn't have announced only the deaths of Madam Ruan and her sons. If they were going to announce deaths, they would announce them together. There'd be no reason to wait and announce Shao Pingbo's death separately later, adding another funeral to the household."

Yuan Fang blinked. "We were trying to kill Shao Pingbo. How did Madam Ruan and her sons end up dead instead?"

Niu Youdao gave a helpless chuckle. "The three people who died just happen to be Shao Pingbo's enemies. What more is there to say? I'm afraid Shao Pingbo had all three of them eliminated. The sequence isn't difficult to guess. For Shao Pingbo to kill all three so ruthlessly at a time like this, there had to be a cause. And the cause is obvious. They didn't die earlier, and they didn't die later. They died precisely now. Clearly, Shao Pingbo discovered them plotting against him. Ah, those two Shao brothers... I went to all this trouble to give them a hand, and somehow they still managed to let the news leak to Shao Pingbo. I don't even know what to say about them."

[End of Chapter 223]