"Come take a look."
Jiang Beiran waved Wu Qingce over, crouched down, and wiped his finger across the lips of the female disciple from the Life-Severing Palace.
"Smell this. What scent is it?"
Wu Qingce leaned in, sniffed, and after a moment of thought, answered, "It smells like... purple sunflowers?"
"Don't give me a 'maybe.' I need a definite answer."
"It’s definitely purple sunflowers!"
"Bend your head down."
"Huh...?"
"What do you mean 'huh'? Hurry up."
"Senior Brother, be gentle..."
Wu Qingce lowered his head reluctantly.
"Ahh!"
After Wu Qingce let out a yelp of pain, Jiang Beiran said, "This is the scent of hibiscus—a rouge made by mixing it with indigo petal flower juice. I’ve already checked the market in Singing Emerald Town. They don’t sell high-quality rouge like this there.
Now, answer me this: where’s the nearest place you think would sell such high-end rouge?"
"Anhuo City!"
Wu Qingce blurted out while rubbing his forehead.
"Mm, finally got one right."
Jiang Beiran rubbed his fingers together and continued, "Though it’s not certain they bought it there, you can head to Anhuo City tomorrow and see if you can find any leads. Now, recite the mantra I taught you. What’s the purpose of an investigation?"
"Oh, right."
Wu Qingce immediately recited, shaking his head slightly, "If there’s profit, take a cut; if there’s none, guard against a trap." Nodding in approval, Jiang Beiran then untied the two coin pouches from the black-clothed man’s waist and emptied the copper coins onto the ground.
"Check them. Which regions do they come from?"
"Yes."
Crouching down, Wu Qingce carefully examined the coins.
"There’s some from Anhu, some from Shangtang, Ningyi... Ah, here we go—ones from our JB District. Judging by the craftsmanship, they probably came from Northern Mountain Prefecture."
"So, putting it all together, do you see the route they took from Peaceful River Island to here?"
"Yes! They most likely entered through Wusong Pass."
"Good answer. That’s progress."
Jiang Beiran nodded approvingly.
"Gather these coins and put them away properly. And tell me why."
"When traveling, never spend coins from your hometown."
"Mm. Pack them up."
After that, Jiang Beiran checked the black-clothed man’s Universe Ring again and pulled out a scroll. Unrolling it, he found it was a portrait.
"Tsk... ugly as sin."
Jiang Beiran had never understood the mainstream aesthetic of painters in this world. They all emphasized "capturing the spirit but not the form," even on wanted posters. He often wondered if such vague drawings could actually help catch fugitives.
The man in the portrait had high cheekbones, a hooked nose, and thin lips—looking like some kind of monster. But after getting used to the local way of interpreting such paintings, Jiang Beiran noticed something familiar. 'Does this guy look familiar...?'
Wu Qingce, who had just finished sorting the coins, peeked over.
"Senior Brother, do you think they were searching for the person in this painting?"
"That’d be way too unprofessional."
The Life-Severing Palace disciples were clearly no saints, so whoever they were after was likely an assassination target. But as a professional assassination team, shouldn’t they have burned the portrait after memorizing it? Just as Jiang Beiran was about to speak after tossing the scroll to Wu Qingce, three options appeared before him.
[Option 1: Have Wu Qingce investigate the person in the painting. Reward: Jade Dew Finger (Mysterious Grade, Mid Tier)] [Option 2: Investigate the person in the painting yourself. Reward: Seven Fowl Leg (Yellow Grade, Mid Tier)] [Option 3: Pretend nothing happened. Reward: Random Special Attribute Point +1] 'Oh?
A special attribute point this time? The System’s being unusually generous.' Pleased, Jiang Beiran chose the third option and stood up.
"Alright, that’s enough for today. I can tell your mind’s already wandered off to those two exotic beasts."
[Option mission completed. Reward: Breathing +1] 'Breathing, huh?
It’s been a while.' Feeling a slight surge of joy at the reward, Jiang Beiran noted that the Breathing attribute greatly aided stamina recovery. Even when he exhausted himself during training, he could recover much faster now.
Hearing Jiang Beiran’s remark, Wu Qingce quickly shook his head.
"I wasn’t!"
In a good mood, Jiang Beiran couldn’t resist teasing him.
"Fine, then keep examining the corpses here. I’ll go deal with those two exotic beasts myself."
"Ah! Senior Brother! I—" "What?"
Jiang Beiran glanced back.
"... I admit I wanted to fight those second-grade exotic beasts as soon as possible."
"See? Isn’t it better to be honest?"
"It’s just that you’re too..."
Wu Qingce trailed off mid-sentence, but under Jiang Beiran’s sharp gaze, he chuckled awkwardly.
"Never mind... never mind, hehe."
"Follow me."
Leading Wu Qingce to stand before the Lightning-Striped Beast and the Evil Laughing Beast, Jiang Beiran announced, "One of you, fight him. If you win, you can leave." The two beasts exchanged confused glances.
"Seriously? You’re second-grade beasts and still can’t understand human speech?"
Jiang Beiran sighed in disappointment. Hearing his sigh, the two beasts immediately began bowing and whimpering in fear, making low "whimper... whimper..." sounds.
"Ugh, what a pain."
Jiang Beiran walked forward and dragged the Lightning-Striped Beast out.
"Growl! Awoo—%#￥@#!"
The Lightning-Striped Beast yelped in terror, desperately looking to the Evil Laughing Beast for help. But the latter simply turned its head away, pretending not to see. In despair, the Lightning-Striped Beast let out another series of miserable howls.
"Shut up!"
Jiang Beiran glared, his overwhelming spiritual pressure reducing the beast to quiet, pitiful whimpers. Dragging the beast in front of Wu Qingce, Jiang Beiran pointed at it, then at Wu Qingce, and finally clashed his fists together.
"Understand?" he asked the Lightning-Striped Beast.
Somewhat grasping the idea that it wouldn’t be killed immediately, the beast nodded frantically. Thus began Jiang Beiran’s ten-minute session of charades, eventually getting the Lightning-Striped Beast to comprehend the situation.
"Senior Brother... the beast’s shaking so much. Can it even fight me seriously?"
Seeing the Lightning-Striped Beast trembling uncontrollably, Wu Qingce suddenly felt like the villain in this scenario.
"Too picky."
Jiang Beiran turned back and used more gestures to convey that if it didn’t defeat Wu Qingce, he would kill it on the spot. The Lightning-Striped Beast nodded vigorously, its eyes turning fierce as it glared at Wu Qingce.
"That’s the spirit! Go kill him!"
Jiang Beiran gave the beast an encouraging nod. As the Lightning-Striped Beast’s killing intent surged, Wu Qingce hastily grabbed Jiang Beiran’s sleeve.
"Alright, alright, Senior Brother... that’s enough. No need to provoke it further."
(End of Chapter)