The two yamen runners immediately stepped forward, pulling out cold iron chains to shackle Su Ming.

Reader Guo’s face darkened, and he instantly blocked Su Ming’s path. “Censor, what is the meaning of this? Su Ming is a Hanlin Compiler. Even if he has erred, he should be dealt with by the Hanlin Academy or the Ministry of Personnel. For the Censorate to act in this manner, does it not overstep its authority?”

Although he had given Su Ming a hard time, Su Ming was, after all, one of his own men. Having someone taken from his own office was a blow to his face.

“Reader Guo, this matter involves a grave crime concerning the military and the state. Do not interfere!” The censor swept him a cold glance, pulling out an official document stamped with the Censorate’s great seal from his robe.

“By order of the Censorate, Hanlin Academy Compiler Su Ming, disregarding military affairs, colluding with unscrupulous merchants, substituting inferior goods for quality ones, delaying military plans, causing heavy casualties among the Northern Frontier soldiers. He is to be apprehended immediately and await judgment!”

“Colluding with merchants? Delaying military plans?” Reader Guo was so frightened by these sudden accusations that his face turned deathly pale.

“The evidence is irrefutable!” The censor snorted coldly, looking at Su Ming. “Su Ming! Do you admit your guilt!”

Su Ming’s body trembled slightly. He did not resist, allowing the cold iron chains to lock around his wrists.

He raised his head, his face etched with innocence and fear.

“My lord, I… I am wronged! I do nothing but copy books in the academy every day, I have never left the capital. How could I possibly commit the crime of delaying military plans?”

“Hmph, on the brink of death, and you still dare to quibble!” The censor harshly reprimanded him, taking an object wrapped in oilcloth from a yamen runner.

He tore open the oilcloth with a jerk, revealing a piece of broken leather armor inside.

The chest area of the leather armor was torn open by a hard object, exposing the rotten inner lining, the edges still stained with shocking traces of blood.

“Look at this!” The censor threw the leather armor onto the desk in front of Su Ming. “Northern Frontier soldiers, because they wore the leather armor you colluded with unscrupulous merchants to supply to the Armaments Bureau, substituting inferior goods, the armor cracked and they were hacked to death by the Black Rong’s curved blades! Dozens of lives, all dead because of you!”

Su Ming looked at the piece of armor, his face displaying a perfectly measured shock and terror.

“My lord! This… what does this have to do with me? I have never been involved in military equipment procurement!”

“Still pretending!” The censor sneered. “Your fellow jinshi from the same examination year, Ministry of Revenue junior clerk Xu Qing, submitted a memorial titled ‘Memorial on Stabilizing Paper Prices, Opening New Revenue Sources and Reducing Expenditures to Augment Military Funds,’ intending to shake up the existing structure of military procurement. Do you dare say you knew nothing of this?”

“Brother… Brother Xu…” Su Ming’s lips trembled slightly, as if struck in a vulnerable spot.

“His petition directly pointed out the flaws in military supply. And you! You have been consulting a vast number of Northern Frontier battle archives in the Hanlin Academy! You, in pursuit of political achievement, disregarded military affairs, intending to replace the existing military supply system with your immature ‘new methods’! You are deluding court officials, plotting sedition!”

The censor’s accusations, like a mountain collapsing and a tidal wave surging, pinned Su Ming firmly under the dual shackles of morality and law.

Su Ming’s body swayed unsteadily, as if he might collapse at any moment.

“I… I was only…” He opened his mouth, but couldn’t utter a complete sentence. That appearance of being utterly terrified and heartbroken by the sudden heavy accusations made everyone in the Wenyuan Pavilion believe the censor’s charges.

Qian Bin watched Su Ming’s wretched state, a flash of satisfaction and schadenfreude passing through his eyes.

“Take him away!” The censor said no more, waving his hand sharply.

The yamen runners roughly shoved Su Ming, leading him out of the Wenyuan Pavilion.

However, in a corner of the crowd, a figure suddenly clenched his fist tightly.

It was Zhang Yiming.

He watched as Su Ming was shackled with iron chains. The contempt in his heart, that feeling of ‘rotten wood cannot be carved,’ was replaced by a more complex emotion.

He had once despised Su Ming’s cowardice. But when this cowardly colleague truly faced catastrophic disaster, he realized that in this game of power, they, these sons of humble origins, didn’t even have the right to be cowards.

The cold iron chains dragged across the bluestone floor, emitting a grating, scraping sound.

As Su Ming was being taken away, he deliberately stumbled and fell on the ground, his panic and helplessness performed to perfection.

The Imperial Prison, located deep underground in the capital, was a place specifically for interrogating serious criminals.

The moment one stepped inside, the smells of damp cold, darkness, blood, and rot hit like a solid block of lead, almost suffocating.

Su Ming was roughly pushed into a narrow cell. Stone walls, stone floor, stone bed. Water dripped from all sides, the chill biting.

The yamen runners removed the chains from his body, only to replace them with heavier, thicker leg irons.

“Stay put! In the Imperial Prison, no one cares about Hanlin Academy rules!” The yamen runner sneered, slamming the heavy iron door shut with a bang.

“Clang—”

The sound of the iron door locking was like a giant hammer smashing into Su Ming’s heart.

He slumped onto the cold stone bed, his body trembling slightly from the cold and fear.

“Disciple, stop acting. There’s no audience here.” Lin Yu’s voice sounded, carrying a hint of schadenfreude-laced humor.

Su Ming took a deep breath, circulated the Greenwood Longevity Art. The spiritual energy within his body slowly flowed, dispelling the surrounding yin cold.

“Master, the yin energy in this place… is so heavy.”

“That’s the backlash from the suppressed earth vein energy, combined with the accumulated resentment and blood energy over many years. An ordinary person staying here long would either die or go mad.” Lin Yu’s tone was grave. “You might as well take the opportunity to absorb some yin-attribute spiritual energy, balance the wood attribute in your body. Consider it not a wasted trip.”

“Someone! Bring out the serious criminal Su Ming for interrogation!”

The iron door opened again. Su Ming was taken to the interrogation room.

The interrogation room was even colder than the cell. Expressionless yamen runners stood on both sides. In the middle sat two interrogation officials wearing Censorate robes.

The chief interrogator was a clean-shaven middle-aged man with a pale face, narrow eyes that exuded a chilling coldness.

“Su Ming, do you admit your guilt?” The chief interrogator’s voice was like ice scraping, carrying a bone-chilling cold.

Su Ming immediately knelt on the ground, prostrating himself extremely low. “My lord! This student is wronged! Since entering the capital, this student has only known copying books daily, never involved in military or state affairs. What crime have I committed!”

“Copying books?” The chief interrogator sneered, picking up a stack of documents from the desk and slamming them heavily on the floor in front of Su Ming.

“Look! What is this!”

Su Ming’s hands trembling, he picked up those few sheets of paper.

The first was a letter imitating his handwriting. The wording in the letter was obscure, hinting that he had successfully persuaded Ministry of Revenue officials to be “flexible” in military procurement. The signature at the end was clearly the character “Ming.”

The second was a document regarding “leather armor procurement,” with his “suggestion” to adopt a certain batch of cheap, abundant leather armor annotated on it.

The third was a Censorate verification report. It stated: On the Northern Frontier front, due to the inferior quality of military leather armor, dozens of soldiers were killed or wounded during a Black Rong night raid. The leather armor was precisely the batch Su Ming had “suggested” procuring.

The evidence was irrefutable!

Su Ming’s face instantly turned deathly pale. He looked at the report, his eyes wide open as if seeing the image of himself being beheaded.

“My lord! This… these are all forged! This student never wrote these letters, nor had the authority to suggest procurement! This student is only a seventh-rank compiler, I even need Reader Guo’s approval to leave the academy!” Su Ming suddenly kowtowed, his voice choked with sobs. His forehead struck the cold ground, emitting “thud, thud” sounds.

“Outrageous!” The chief interrogator slammed the table hard, making the teacup on it jump.

“At this point, you still dare to quibble! I ask you, what dealings do you have with the merchant Li Fugui from Qingshi Town? Is your new paper-making method related to your collusion with unscrupulous merchants for huge profits?”

“Li Fugui? This student does not know him!” Su Ming shouted. “The paper-making method is a local method from my hometown, what does it have to do with military supply? My lord, this student is wronged! I beg you to investigate clearly!”

He channeled all his fear and innocence into the most primal wails and pleas for mercy. He cried until snot and tears streamed down his face, his body shaking with convulsions, completely the image of a frail scholar pushed to the brink.

A flash of contempt passed through the chief interrogator’s eyes.

“Hmph, you won’t admit it until you see the coffin! Men, bring out the torture instruments!”

“Yes, sir!” Two yamen runners immediately stepped forward, holding whips soaked in saltwater.

At that moment, the deputy interrogator who had been silent beside the chief interrogator suddenly spoke, his voice icy. “Su Ming, do you know what a grave crime delaying military plans is according to the Great Xing Code? Light punishment is immediate execution by beheading. Heavy punishment is extermination of three clans! If you truthfully confess the mastermind behind you, perhaps your punishment can be lightened, changed to exile three thousand li!”

Su Ming instantly understood their intention—they didn’t want to execute him directly, but to force him to implicate more people. Exile three thousand li, this was the outcome they had prepared for him.

“My lord, spare my life! This student confesses! I confess!” Su Ming’s performance reached its climax. He cried out in terror, “This student truly doesn’t know! This student only… only heard Reader Guo and Lord Li’s attendants mention a few words while I was organizing the archives! This student didn’t understand a single word!”

Su Ming’s “confession” pointed the finger at Reader Guo and Li Wen. This was precisely what the Yongchang Marquis Manor hoped to see. Turning the conflict into a dog-eat-dog fight within the upright officials’ faction, clearing the Marquis Manor of suspicion.

The chief interrogator watched Su Ming’s “breakdown” coldly, his tone softening slightly.

“You only need to speak the truth. Who instructed you, who conspired with you. I will naturally see justice done for you.”

“No one instructed me! No one conspired with me!” Su Ming wailed, shaking his head like a rattle drum. “This student is just a book copier! It was them! They saw this student was easy to bully, they… they shoved these things into this student’s hands!”

He pointed at the documents on the floor, his eyes filled with extreme fear of power struggles.

The interrogation lasted a full hour.

Su Ming did not relent. He insisted he was innocent, that he had been framed. But the fear and helplessness he displayed made the interrogators believe he had completely broken down, utterly vulnerable.

“Take him away! Continue holding him! Await judgment!”

The chief interrogator waved his hand, a flash of impatience in his eyes. He had already gotten what he wanted—Su Ming’s “evidence of guilt” and his “confessing” attitude.

Su Ming was thrown back into his cell. He was soaked through, shivering from the cold.

“Disciple, impressive. For this performance, teacher gives you ninety-nine points. Deducting one point so you don’t get arrogant.” Lin Yu’s voice carried appreciation.

Su Ming didn’t speak. He leaned against the cold wall, adjusting his breathing, while simultaneously replaying in his mind the material evidence he had come into contact with during the interrogation.

“Master, those pieces of evidence… have problems.”

“Of course they have problems, otherwise how could it be called framing?” Lin Yu laughed. “But the problems are bigger than you imagine. Let’s start with that letter.”

Su Ming closed his eyes, recalling the letter that imitated his handwriting.

“The handwriting imitation is very similar. But on the signature character ‘Ming,’ I sensed a hint of stiffness. My brushstroke, when finishing, habitually has a restrained force. The finishing stroke of that letter seemed somewhat hollow and floating.” Su Ming analyzed solemnly.

“Correct, that’s the first point.” Lin Yu praised. “Although your spiritual energy is weak, long-term cultivation of the Greenwood Longevity Art has given you control over your body and brushstrokes far surpassing ordinary people. Ordinary people can’t see it, but the imitator ultimately isn’t you.”

“Second, is the annotation on the leather armor document.” Su Ming continued. “My handwriting, when copying the ‘Collected Statutes,’ is the standard academy style, extremely rigid. But the handwriting on that annotation carried a hint of… a hint of casual elegance. Although very faint, it slightly deviates from my usual ‘dull’ persona.”

“Excellent!” Lin Yu’s voice carried excitement. “This proves that the person framing you probably only obtained your earlier, or private correspondence handwriting, and didn’t get your ‘Su the Dullard’ handwriting from after you entered the Hanlin Academy. This is an intelligence discrepancy.”

“The most crucial, is that batch of leather armor.” Su Ming’s voice sank.

At that time in the interrogation room, although he appeared panicked, his spiritual sense, like the most precise sensor, had quietly touched that piece of leather armor fragment presented as evidence.

“That leather armor fragment carried an unnatural smell of decay. That smell was extremely similar to the scent of withered wood eroded by an array that I discovered on the back mountain of Qingshi Town.”

Lin Yu’s soul body instantly froze.

“What?!” Lin Yu’s voice carried genuine shock for the first time.

“Are you sure it’s not ordinary insect damage or chemical corrosion?”

“I’m sure.” Su Ming’s tone was firm. “That aura was extremely faint, but carried a unique yin coldness and sense of decay, completely different from mundane rot. It left subtle array traces on the leather armor. Although mostly worn away, the residual aura couldn’t hide from my spiritual sense.”

Lin Yu fell silent. This silence was more alarming than any noise.

“The Yongchang Marquis Manor… has a cultivator behind it!” Lin Yu’s voice became unprecedentedly grave.

Su Ming’s heart gave a violent jump, a chill sweeping through his entire body.

“A low-level cultivator.” Lin Yu quickly analyzed. “They didn’t attack you directly. Instead, they used mundane means, tampering with mundane evidence to achieve the framing. This shows they have reservations, not daring to openly use cultivation power.”

“This is both good and bad.”

“Good, because they don’t dare to blatantly kill you within the capital. Bad, because they have already employed methods from the cultivation world. This means you will face pressure from two worlds!”

Lin Yu’s soul body inside the ring was like an overloaded machine, operating at high speed.

“Why would they use an array to corrode the leather armor? Using poison directly would be faster and more concealed, wouldn’t it?” Su Ming asked.

“No, array corrosion is harder for mundane coroners to detect than poison.” Lin Yu explained. “Moreover, if this is the method of some low-level sect or family, they would deliberately leave this ‘array corrosion’ trace as a kind of hidden warning or mark.”

“Warning whom?”

“Warning all cultivators who want to interfere in this matter, and also warning all upright officials who want to clear Zhou Wenhai’s name. Telling them that this matter has already been ‘sealed’ by ‘immortal families,’ mortals stay away!” Lin Yu’s voice carried anger. “These old foxes really play power games to the extreme!”

Su Ming closed his eyes, suppressing this anger.

“Master, since they don’t dare to act within the capital, then my life is temporarily safe.”

“Correct, the capital is the center of mundane power, Dragon Qi is vast and mighty, not a place where they can act recklessly.” Lin Yu said. “But exile three thousand li, once you leave the capital, that’s a different story.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep