Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)-Chapter 946: Three Suspects

Lan Ting had come to the guest room to deliver clothes. Although he had no use for them himself, Lu Yang couldn’t simply send her away now. That would be discourteous.

“Junior Sister Lan, would you like to come in and have a seat?”

“Sure.” Lan Ting entered and noticed a half-eaten spirit fruit by the doorway.

“I didn’t hold it steady earlier and accidentally dropped it on the floor,” Lu Yang explained sheepishly as he grabbed the spirit fruit, wiped it clean, and resumed eating.

Both of them struggled to hop onto their chairs. After that, Lu Yang initiated a conversation about their diminution.

“Has it been discovered who dosed the moon laurel trees?” This culprit caused me to turn small! Lu Yang swore to bring them to justice once they were caught!

“Not yet. Investigations revealed that a total of thirty-six moon laurel trees of various ages have been dosed, taking on enlarging and shrinking properties. The one used for the mooncake filling and the one you chopped down were two of them.”

Lu Yang helplessly pressed his hand to his forehead. With moon laurel trees covering the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace’s mountains, he had simply picked a thriving one at random, never expecting it to be among those dosed.

What luck.

The immortal palace also understood that this was a matter of luck, unrelated to Lu Yang.

If it were related to him, he might have ended up in a cell next to Xue Shilou for a while. But then again, the two could exchange insights on Sword Dao, so it wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster.

Lan Ting continued, “Also, when the pill concoction chamber took stock of its inventory, dozens of precious medicinal ingredients were found missing. Traces of these ingredients were discovered on the dosed moon laurel trees.

“The pill concoction chamber conducts an inventory check every two months before going down the mountain to purchase supplies. That’s why the theft has gone unnoticed until now.”

“So it was really the work of someone within the immortal palace?” Lu Yang asked.

The storage area for medicinal ingredients would certainly be protected by layers of arrays. To pass through these arrays and steal the ingredients, the culprit had to be either an immortal or someone from within the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace.

“My shifu is investigating each suspect one by one, but so far, there haven’t been any leads. Moreover, she can’t fathom why the thief would experiment on moon laurel trees. What could be their purpose?” Although Lan Ting really wanted to help her shifu resolve this intractable situation, she was, unfortunately, a child now and could not be of assistance.

“How many suspects are there?” Despite Lu Yang’s miniature size and his loss of magical powers, he trusted that his mind still functioned well. Perhaps I can uncover some clues.

Lan Ting saw no harm in sharing the details with Lu Yang and counted on her fingers. “There are three: Elder Miao, the former supervisor of the pill concoction chamber; Elder Mei, the current supervisor; and Senior Sister Bai, Elder Mei’s eldest disciple.

“Only the three of them know how to open the great array and can freely access the pill concoction chamber’s medicine repository.

“In fact, Junior Grand-Aunt Qu Ling, the previous palace leader, also knows how to open the great array. However, she’s currently imprisoned in Sinner Hall. It can’t be her.

“Although we can’t ascertain who stole the precious medicinal ingredients, the time of theft can be determined.”

“How so?”

“Every time the great array is opened to enter the medicine repository, a record is kept—what time it was, who opened it, and what medicinal ingredients were taken.

“According to the data, over the past two months, the great array was opened sixteen times: eight by Senior Sister Bai, six by Elder Mei, and two by Elder Miao.

“However, after an elder adept at arrays meticulously investigated the records, she discovered the great array had been opened seventeen times—one more time than recorded!

“This extra time must be when the thief opened it!

“My shifu has investigated in detail what each of the three was doing on that day.”

With much effort, Lan Ting grabbed two spirit fruits from the plate at the table’s center, one red and one blue, to represent the suspects.

Lu Yang tacitly handed her his half-eaten spirit fruit, saving her the effort of reaching for a third.

Lan Ting arranged the two whole spirit fruits and the half-eaten one in a row.

She pushed the red spirit fruit forward. “Elder Miao is skilled in clone-splitting techniques, so adept that those of the same level cannot distinguish her real self from her clones.

“After retiring, she traveled far and wide to seek breakthrough opportunities. Coincidentally, she returned to the sect a month and a half ago, allegedly due to owing a huge debt; she had come back to borrow spirit stones. As for exactly how much she owed and whether she borrowed enough, that remains unknown.

“On the day of the incident, Elder Miao was catching up with another retired elder and never left her cave abode.”

Lan Ting pushed the blue spirit fruit forward. “As the current supervisor of the pill concoction chamber, Elder Mei is always busy, and the day of the incident was no exception. She claims that she stayed in the room all day, contemplating new pill formulas and this year’s mooncake designs. She mentioned that she left the room only twice for a walk to find some inspiration, but no one saw her outside the pill concoction chamber.”

The remaining half of a spirit fruit naturally represented Senior Sister Bai. “That day, Senior Sister Bai was concocting pills. Three junior sisters passing by the pill concoction chamber saw her concocting pills through the paper window.

“The pill she was refining is called the Nine-Heart Lotus Seed Pill. It requires a full day of uninterrupted focus; leaving the pill furnace is utterly impossible. The Nine-Heart Lotus Seed Pill is exceedingly difficult to concoct. Even Senior Sister Bai has only a ten percent chance of success. She was in excellent form that day and succeeded. Afterward, she flaunted her achievement to several senior and junior sisters.

"During the investigation, another matter came to light. A week before the medicinal ingredients disappeared, Senior Sister Bai had a fierce argument with Elder Mei. Senior Sister Bai had requested three precious medicinal ingredients to refine a pill and improve her pill-concocting skills, but Elder Mei deemed her abilities insufficient and believed she would certainly fail, so she rejected the application.

“Coincidentally, these three medicinal ingredients were on the list of stolen items.”

After listening, Lu Yang had a pensive expression. Upon careful consideration, none of the three had alibis.

Elder Miao’s proficiency in clone-splitting techniques makes it difficult to distinguish real from fake. She could have used the other elder to fabricate an alibi.

Elder Mei claims to have left the room to seek inspiration, but there are no witnesses.

Senior Sister Bai’s pill concoction process required undivided attention, but the three witnesses had only seen her silhouette through the paper window. What they saw might not have been Senior Sister Bai at all.

Moreover, each of them has a motive.

Lu Yang lowered his head, an enigmatic smile playing at the corner of his lips.

This is what they mean by “it’s dark right under the lamp,” huh? People tend to overlook the things right under their noses.

“Senior Brother, have you thought of something?” Seeing Lu Yang’s expression, Lan Ting was certain he had uncovered a clue!

“Little Lan, I know who the thief is.”

“These three may appear suspicious, but that’s not the case. Since each of them has records of entering the medicine repository and taking medicinal ingredients, they could simply take what they wanted during those authorized visits. There would be no need for a seventeenth time to go through the great array unauthorized—an act that would leave traces behind!

“The only explanation is that the culprit is none of these three!"

“Junior Sister Lan, you mentioned earlier that Qu Ling, the previous palace leader, knows how to undo the medicine repository’s grand array. Doesn’t that imply the current palace leader also knows how to open it?”

Lu Yang’s visage flickered with pain. Though the answer will be hard for Junior Sister Lan to hear, it is the truth—a cruel truth she must confront!

“Therefore, the answer is obvious. The perpetrator is none other than Luo—”

Before Lu Yang could finish, the Everlasting Immortal Fairy witnessed a surprising scene with her immortal consciousness. “Eh? Why is that little lass Bai Ye dosing the moon laurel trees?”