After the guard left, he found an inn attendant in the back courtyard and asked, “You took water upstairs to that guest?”

The attendant had taken his money before, so he answered readily enough. “I did. The guest wanted a bath.”

“And then? Anything unusual in his room?”

“No. He took his bath, and we carried the dirty water out afterward. That was all.”

“No one else went in or out?”

“No. Just him and that lord tiger monster. They hardly even left the room.”

Only then did the guard relax. Maybe I was just overthinking...

* * *

The next morning.

Although the sun still had not come out, the rain that had lasted for days had finally stopped, and the people of Baishajue all breathed easier.

If a real downpour had come, what kind of crowd would the Lotus Festival still have left?

The town made its living off the water. Every year after the festival, Baishajue’s local specialties would be shipped by merchants all across the state, so getting a good start to the event mattered a great deal.

He Lingchuan rose early, regulated his breathing, then practiced with his saber for another hour or so before Jiao Yu came to find him.

“It’s time for us to go.”

At the sound of its voice, He Lingchuan retracted his saber. Fleeting Life’s blade turned, reflecting its master’s steady, resolute face.

Today was the key to breaking the deadlock.

After today, this case was destined to land like a thunderclap, one that might even shake the distant Lingxu City.

And once that happened, slipping away cleanly would become harder and harder for him.

So be it. Let the storm come harder still.

“Let’s go.” He reached out and rubbed the tiger’s head. “Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”

Jiao Yu flicked its tail. Somehow, it felt that today, He Lingchuan’s saber was brimming with killing intent, especially fierce and vicious.

Strength comes from the heart. What’s going on with this special envoy today?

Daylight was gradually spreading.

He Lingchuan, Jiao Yu, and Commander Lu had all been invited to watch the ceremony from Chao Lake Tower. After its repairs, the tower looked even grander than before.

Unlike festivals elsewhere, the Lotus Festival always began with the lotus token contest. Before the festivities officially commenced, the invited guests would first climb the Chao Lake Tower to watch the festival’s opening event.

Even reinforced, Chao Lake Tower still had a limited capacity. On this day, only the wealthy and the nobles, along with specially invited guests like He Lingchuan and Zhongsun Mou, were allowed up to watch.

He Lingchuan also spotted Xiang Yan. The old man smiled at him from afar, and He Lingchuan nodded back in greeting.

When He Lingchuan climbed the tower again and looked out, he found that the southwestern corner of the great lake had somehow turned green, the greenery covering a full third of the lake’s surface.

Chao Lake was so vast that you could not see its edges even from a distance, for a third of it to be covered like this meant an enormous area indeed.

“Are those lotus leaves and... duckweed?” The entire stretch of water was blanketed in lush green. He Lingchuan had no idea how the event was even supposed to begin.

The last time he had climbed the tower, that part of the lake had been completely clear water. He had only been away a few days, yet so many plants had suddenly sprung up.

Someone beside him answered, “Those plants were all forced to grow by lotus monsters. Once the contest begins, the duckweed will disappear on its own, and the waterways will clear up.”

He Lingchuan turned to look. Isn’t this Cen Boqing? Wu Kai is standing right behind him.

“Lord Cen, does your household have a boat in the competition too?”

“Of course. My family enters the competition every year. We’ve taken the lotus token at least twice.” Cen Boqing sounded completely at ease, as if he were just chatting idly with him. “Will the special envoy care to try his luck too? Outsiders join every year.”

He Lingchuan gazed at the dense spread of lotus leaves in the distance. Their leaves were broad as parasols, and the stalks were much thicker than any lotus he had seen elsewhere, rising well over a meter above the water. If a boat made its way in there, it would be no different from entering a maze. Your view would be completely blocked.

“No thanks. It’s much nicer standing here and watching everyone else work for it. Why go down there myself?” He Lingchuan said with a smile. “What do you think, Lord Cen?”

Cen Boqing replied, “Indeed. The wisdom of keeping oneself clean and apart isn’t something everyone understands.”

The two men smiled at each other.

He Lingchuan thought to himself, This bastard’s really assured of himself. He’s actually come over here to posture in front of me. Is he so sure that I have had no way of getting hold of his weak spot?

Commander Lu, with four or five subordinates around him, was standing close by. Hearing that, he cut in, “My men joined too. There, look! Boat 97!”

Following the direction of his finger, He Lingchuan saw more than a hundred small boats lined up by the lakeshore, two people to a boat, every one of them poised and ready.

When the appointed time arrived, Chao Lake Tower was packed with nobles, and the space below it was jammed with commoners.

As everyone waited in eager anticipation, the magistrate of Baishajue County stepped forward and personally rang the great bronze bell hanging beneath the tower eaves.

Ding-ling-ling, ding-ling-ling—

The lake breeze carried the mellow, pleasant sound of the bell all the way to the pebble beach.

Back in Yuan, this kind of festival that involved the whole populace would usually begin with a long string of firecrackers going off all at once. That was what real festivity sounded like.

But in Beijia, they could only use bells or clappers. Fireworks and firecrackers were forbidden.

The official reason was that such things easily caused fires and could burn down homes and start accidents.

But of course, everyone knew the real reason fireworks were banned was that monsters did not like them.

Humans loved noise and excitement, but most monsters, especially the smaller ones, felt only fear and disgust when they heard sudden explosive blasts.

Beijia was, after all, known as the monster state. Naturally, it had to respect the general feelings of its monster population.

If a small group firmly opposed something, while a larger group simply did not care one way or the other, that thing would most likely be banned.

That was why Beijia’s festivals, even New Year celebrations, never featured fireworks.

He Lingchuan had learned this a long time ago, because Second Boss Shi had complained about it to him during their travels, saying that despite how vast the monster state was, there was hardly anyone who would do business with him in fireworks.

Once the sound of the bell spread outward, He Lingchuan saw the duckweed covering that broad expanse of the lake begin to sink beneath the surface.

“Huh?” How does that work?

“Before the contest starts, the duckweed covers the entire water surface, so no one can see how to get into the Lotus Palace,” explained Commander Lu. “Right before the start, the fish monsters in Chao Lake direct schools of fish to bite the duckweed loose and drag it under. That clears channels for the racing boats in no time. This lotus-plucking tradition has been going on for nearly a hundred years now, and the fish monsters are experienced. They know exactly how to coordinate.”

He Lingchuan clicked his tongue in amazement. In the whole world, only Beijia probably knew how to make the fullest possible use of monsters.

His eyes narrowed as he looked out carefully. Sure enough, the lake surface looked as though it were boiling. Who knew how many fish were churning beneath it? Every so often, a large one leaped from the water. Even from this distance, any fish whose figure he could still clearly make out had to be at least over a meter and a half long, a truly hefty catch.

Before long, the duckweed across that whole stretch had mostly been cleared away, far faster than human labor could have managed.

What remained standing above the water was an endless expanse of lotus leaves.

From the tower, the onlookers could see that the lotus field was full of twisting, winding passages, forming an actual maze.

He Lingchuan asked, “So how do you win?”

“Whoever finds the Overlord Lotus hidden somewhere in the lotus maze wins the contest.” Commander Lu laughed. “That’s the prize placed there by the lotus monsters. It only grows right before the contest begins, and as for where it appears, only the lotus monsters themselves know. The performances on shore can’t continue until someone finds it.”

“Is it guaranteed that someone will find it?”

“With more than a hundred boats in the water, someone always does.” Commander Lu coughed lightly. “Though there was one unlucky year when they searched from dawn till dusk, and someone only found it right before dark.”

Jiao Yu said, “Could it be the lotus monsters are going easy on them?”

“Who knows?”

As He Lingchuan listened to their exchange, he suddenly felt a wave of heat from his chest.

Huh? It can’t be, right?

The divine bone hasn’t made its presence known in a long time. Is there treasure in this lake that it wants?

“You said just now that the Overlord Lotus only grows right before the contest?” That’s the only new development. Is that what the divine bone wants?

“That’s right. It only grows right before the competition starts, so nobody picks it by mistake beforehand.” Commander Lu added, “The boats are about to set off. We can place our bets now.”

“You can bet on this too?”

“Why not?” Commander Lu pulled out five taels of silver from his robes and waved over a bookie. “Put it on Boat 97 to win.”

“Right away, Boat 97!” The bookie had no sense at all and even added, “The odds are quite high.”

Commander Lu’s face darkened instantly.

By then, both the crowd on the tower and the people below it were already placing bets one after another.

Listening to the waves of shouting rising from below, He Lingchuan came to a realization. Anything with even the slightest whiff of gambling attached to it was bound to become wildly lively.

It was a shared pleasure, after all.

Cen Boqing also smilingly placed a bet of one hundred taels on his family’s boat.

In truth, the betting also allowed broader number ranges. For instance, you could bet on Boats 15 to 30, and if the winner fell within that range, you still got paid.

But the profit on that kind of wager was much less. The wealthy and powerful usually wanted to support their own boats while also showing off their generosity, so they generally picked a single numbered boat directly, just as Cen Boqing had done.

He turned to He Lingchuan and asked, “Lord Envoy, won’t you try your hand as well?”

He Lingchuan thought to himself that there were a hundred boats here, and he knew nothing about any of them. Throwing money in would be no different from tossing it into the lake. But meeting Cen Boqing’s provocative look, he did not feel like backing down either.

Just then, another ten or so people approached, with Zhongsun Mou and Fan Sheng surrounded at the center.

Only now did He Lingchuan belatedly realize that Zhongsun Mou really liked having an entourage. Every time he showed up, he made quite the entrance.

Heh, good, very good.

Smiling, he called out to Zhongsun Mou, “Lord Zhongsun, have you placed any bets yet?”

Zhongsun Mou was not nearly as practiced as Cen Boqing at smiling without warmth. The moment he saw the thoroughly irritating He Lingchuan, his expression sank at once.

“No.”

“How about a private wager between us?” He Lingchuan turned and asked the bookie, “Can we do one-on-one bets here?”

“Well...” The bookie was quick on the uptake. “If you lords want it, there’s no reason it can’t be done.”

“Good, good. I like that answer. He Lingchuan laughed loudly. “Brother Zhongsun, do you dare?”

Zhongsun Mou let out a scornful snort. “Fine, how do you want to lose?”

Fan Sheng stood to one side without speaking, merely fixing He Lingchuan with a cold stare.

He Lingchuan thought for a moment before saying, “I’ll enter too. I’ll board Commander Lu’s boat—” He turned to Commander Lu and asked, “Is that allowed?”

“Of course it is!” Commander Lu froze for a moment, then was overjoyed. “I’ll pull one man off the boat and put you on.”

“Then I’ll bet on myself to win.”

He Lingchuan turned to leave, but Zhongsun Mou stopped him. “Hold on. What’s your stake?”

“Oh, right!” He Lingchuan smacked his forehead and turned back toward Zhongsun Mou. Reaching into his robes, he took out a turtle pearl and held it in his palm. “This is a pearl from a spirit tortoise who’d had three hundred years of cultivation. What about you?”

“That’s it?” Fan Sheng suddenly spoke. “A dignified special envoy, and you’re using nothing more than a turtle pearl as your wager? That’s awfully shabby.”

He Lingchuan stroked his chin. “With that tone of yours, Lord Fan, don’t tell me you’re planning to put up the stake on Brother Zhongsun’s behalf? What close brothers you two are.”