I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 84 Water Monkey, Pretends to be Dead
Xu Qing didn't care whether the county lieutenant was dismissed or not, and he didn't even care whether the emperor's surname was Zhao or not.

But if he lost his relationship with the government's coroner's office because of one case, that would be unforgivable.

The Linhe Yamen was one of his important sources of corpses. In a few months, when the autumn beheading came, there would be a whole year's worth of corpses waiting for him to collect.

If this way is gone, it would be like cutting off one of his arms. How could he just sit back and do nothing?

After carefully reading the case file and the autopsy record, Xu Qing couldn't help but frown before he finished reading.

"Was Old Lady Cao once the manager of the Sixteenth Route Salt Gang?"

Wang Lingyuan nodded and said, "Old Lady Cao's original name was Cao Xiuying. In her youth, she was nicknamed the 'Female Salt King'. She has been secretly managing the affairs of the Linhe Salt Gang. Rumor has it that she was involved in the blood salt case ten years ago."

"No wonder General He values ​​a servant so highly. This old lady Cao was able to take over the Linhe salt transport business. I'm afraid she must have had the help of the nobles around the general."

"Exactly. If the salt business hadn't been involved, the county lieutenant wouldn't have been so panicked."

The Jianghuai Salt Gang was closely related to the official salt and iron system. The price of official salt remained high, and the private salt trade was profitable. This led to a large number of salt dealers transporting private salt, and the trade could not be stopped despite repeated bans.

As the saying goes, it is better to guide than to intercept. In order to prevent this situation, the imperial court acquiesced to the gray industry of the salt gang.

The Salt Gang was superior to private salt dealers, but was under the government-run salt administration and secretly controlled by the Salt Transport Bureau.

Although on the surface the Salt Gang is still being boycotted, in fact everyone knows very well that the salt sold by the Salt Gang is actually discounted official salt!
Xu Qing was curious about how a "female salt king" who had the support of the general could have her entire family wiped out.

And it happened silently, without leaving any clues.

Xu Qing looked at the autopsy record again with a curious look in his eyes.

According to the transcript, the cause of death for all of Old Lady Cao's family was drowning, and there was a lot of algae and scale in their nasal cavities, chests, and abdomens. It seemed that they most likely died in watery places such as rivers and lakes.

But when Xu Qing saw the record at the end, he looked surprised.

"Grandmother Cao's entire family died in the mansion, and there's no pond or waterside pavilion in the mansion?"

Wang Lingyuan nodded and said, "Yesterday, the county lieutenant and the military tribunal officer were at the scene together. They found that the Cao family had no other water source besides two wells."

After a moment's silence, Wang Lingyuan continued, "The scene of Old Lady Cao's death was far more bizarre than what you saw in the case files."

"I went to the scene after the crime. Guess what I saw?"

"I personally saw two loaches emerge from Old Lady Cao's mouth, and the other corpses also vomited water plants, river snails and other freshwater fish from their mouths."

"When the mouths of some corpses were pried open, there were still small fish jumping around. At that time, not only me, but even Captain Zhao was terrified!"

Upon hearing this, Xuan Yu, who was sitting at the door, instantly became energetic.

Can it vomit the corpses of small fish? Is there such a magical creature in the world?

Xu Qing checked the transcript but did not find any new clues.

"The wells in Cao Mansion don't have these aquatic products. If the wells are excluded, I'm afraid the only explanation is that evil spirits are causing trouble."

"It can't be a demon, it must be human!" Wang Lingyuan lowered his voice and said, "No one dared to search the Cao residence without permission. When the Imperial Guards summoned the Salt Inspector to investigate, they couldn't find even a single page of the Cao family's account books or correspondence related to their illegal salt trade."

"If it was the work of evil spirits, why would they care about these things? Now the censor suspects that the inspection office is secretly colluding with the criminals and hiding the evidence before his arrival."

"Before you came here, you should have seen Captain Zhao training in the front yard. Why don't you think he's out patrolling the streets?"

"The Salt Inspector doesn't let him leave the yamen?" Xu Qing suddenly realized.

"Not only Captain Zhao, but also the Chief Justice Wu and the County Magistrate are always by the Censor's side now, and they dare not leave for even a moment."

Xu Qing was shocked when he heard this and said, "So, if there are no unexpected events, this case will be concluded right now, right?"

Wang Lingyuan sighed, "This case is beyond human control. I haven't slept for two days straight because of it. If I can't find any clues, I'll lose my job at least, but I'm afraid I'll be implicated. I'll most likely be charged with a trumped-up crime and sentenced to prison."

"Imprisonment? I'm afraid they're trying to silence me, aren't they?"

If others really believed that the patrol office was secretly interfering and intercepting evidence of smuggling salt, Xu Qing would not think that he should just be sentenced to prison.

This matter concerns the interests of the salt business and can be serious or minor. If there is really something dirty involved, not to mention General He who is in charge of the Beijing camp, even other related officials will not easily let go of these "hidden dangers".

"I'm afraid I won't be spared!" Wang Lingyuan said dejectedly, "Brother, how could I not know that even if this case is solved, the person who solved it will not have a good ending."

"Junior brother, just let me know about this, but don't mention it to anyone else. If there's really no other way, I'll leave as soon as possible to avoid being implicated."

Xu Qing didn't like hearing this and immediately replied, "You and I are brothers and share the same aspirations. How could I just sit there and do nothing? Besides, who says we have to solve this case?"

"Junior brother, what do you mean by this?"

Xu Qing called Xuanyu over, bent down and tried to scratch its wet nose with his fingers, but it nimbly avoided it.

"Brother, have you forgotten my origins?"

"You mean driving the corpse?"

Xu Qing stood up and said with a faint smile, "Brother, please give me two incense sticks of time. During this time, please do not let anyone come to disturb us."

"This is easy to handle, you can proceed without worry, Junior Brother!" Wang Lingyuan said with a serious expression, then bowed and left the morgue.

After the coroner's room was empty, Xu Qing looked at the body of Old Lady Cao lying on the cold couch and couldn't help licking the corner of his lips.

This was the first time he had opened his shop after two months of seclusion.

The legendary female salt king's hair had already turned gray by this time, and Xu Qing's hand in hers was also rough.

Like grains of salt.

Xu Qing didn't mind, he held the old man's hand and reminisced about the past together.

Fifteen years ago, Cao Xiuying was still a foster mother in the Taiwei Mansion, responsible for the food and daily life of the young yamen.

When the young yamenei grew up, Cao Xiuying, who was deeply trusted by the Grand Marshal, was arranged to Linhe and began to interfere in the affairs of the Salt Gang.

At that time, there was a salt smuggler named Xin Laosan on the Linhe Salt Road. He was a man who sold illegal salt and lived on the edge of a knife.

During the period when Cao Xiuying wanted to gain a foothold in Linhe, she was often troubled by Xin Lao San. The Taiwei Mansion did not take it too seriously at that time. After all, Cao Xiuying was just a woman. It didn't matter if she couldn't take over the Linhe Salt Administration. At worst, she could just replace her with someone else. It would be the same.

But what no one expected was that a woman in her forties, with a dozen people, could wipe out the lair of Xin Lao San, which had a hundred people.

At that time, the piles of salt drying in the salt field were all dyed blood red.

This was the blood salt case that caused a sensation in Tianjin back then!
Therefore, the salt gangs on both sides of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers secretly gave Cao Xiuying the nickname "Female Salt King".

Some people also call her the 'Blood Salt Queen'.

When Xu Qing saw this, he couldn't help but feel puzzled.

In the revolving lantern, Cao Xiuying was no ordinary woman, but a martial arts practitioner who had trained in the Imperial Guards. While her skills weren't as strong as a Ning Gang martial artist, she had reached the Tongmai realm. With such prowess, she could be considered a top-tier martial artist in the martial arts world. So how could she have drowned in her home in such an inexplicable manner?
Continuing to read on, Cao Xiuying married the salt smuggler Ren Yutang into her house, and from then on, she became the manager in charge of the two salt gangs.

There were a total of sixteen salt gangs in Jianghuai, and Cao Xiuying alone took down two of them. When the Taiwei heard the news, he was shocked, and then he spared no effort to pave the way for Cao Xiuying and let her annex more salt roads.

By the time she was fifty, Cao Xiuying had become the leader of the four salt gangs.

There are six routes in Tianjin Prefecture, Cao Xiuying alone controls four of them, and there is a trend of continued expansion.

It was at this time that the people from the Jinmen Gang received an invitation.

Cao Xiuying, who was in her fifties, wanted to celebrate her sixtieth birthday in advance, so she invited salt merchants and salt smugglers from all over the country to attend the banquet.

Celebrating his 60th birthday at the age of 50 was seen by others as a signal, a signal that he wanted to annex the six salt gangs of Tianjin Prefecture.

On the eve of her birthday, Cao Xiuying discussed the Lianghuai salt affairs with her husband and children at home.

That day, the Cao Mansion was brightly lit. After the Cao family members paid homage to the Salt God, they came to the front hall to listen to Old Lady Cao's lecture.

At that time, Cao Xiuying was sitting high on the armchair. She had just said half of her words when she saw two figures outside the hall.

A figure as tall and thin as a bamboo pole, holding a black water flag in his hand.

There was another figure, which looked like a child, about three feet tall, naked, with a long green tail behind it, grayish-white skin, small and fierce eyes, and webbed structures on its hands and feet, with sharp claws on the ends of the webs. It did not look like a human.

Cao Xiuying seemed to recognize the man. Leaning on her snake-head crutch, she said with a smile, "I thought you were someone else, but it turns out you're a Taoist priest working in the water. Why are you here at Shakou Dam instead of cultivating in Qingshuihuo? Perhaps you're out of salt at the temple, and you're looking to buy me a couple of buckets?"

The tall, thin young man known as the Waterworks Taoist Priest chuckled, reached out and touched the monkey-like child beside him, and said, "Someone offered a huge price to buy the lives of your entire family. I didn't want to come, but he gave me a treasure, so I had no choice but to come."

Cao Xiuying narrowed her eyes, raised her hand to stop the Cao family member who wanted to step forward, and said, "I have heard of the water conservancy skills of Tianwu Temple. All you rely on is this water monkey."

"But from what I know, this little monkey loses 70% of its abilities once it leaves the water. If you want to use it to harm my Cao family, I'm afraid it won't work."

"Well, if you just tell me who sent you here, I'll forgive you and leave you with your body intact."

The tall and thin Taoist priest did not respond, but took out a moss-covered bowl from his arms and placed it on the head of the water monkey next to him.

The water monkey, which was originally listless, instantly regained its spirits.

The water monkey's dry webbed paws also became moist.

When Cao Xiuying saw the fishy water flowing out from under the water monkey, her voice suddenly stopped.

The Taoist priest from Tianwu Temple looked down at the bowl of water overflowing from the water monkey's head and said with a smile, "Old lady, this bowl is called the Water Filter Bowl. It can borrow water from a ten-mile-wide river."

"The old lady's mansion is just ten miles away from the port. Isn't that a coincidence?"

As soon as the Taoist priest finished speaking, everyone in the hall began to thrash around as if they were drowning, and the water mixed with the fishy smell of the river seemed to have burst through the floodgates, rushing out from the eyes, ears, mouths and noses of the Cao family members.

Some people have seaweed growing out of the corners of their eyes, hanging stickyly on their faces.

Others kept vomiting small fish and river sand out of their mouths.

In a short while, the whole hall was filled with a strong fishy smell.

Old Lady Cao persisted the longest. She tried to pull out the long sword from the snake's head and kill the Taoist priest outside.

But before she even walked out of the hall, mud and water plants began to spew out of her seven orifices.

The closer she got, the more water filled her lungs and the more mud filled her body.

When she staggered in front of the water engineer, a large amount of mud gushed out of the old lady's mouth, mixed with many bright red organ fragments.

A generation of female salt king was choked to death by the muddy river water at home.

Xu Qing was stunned. What kind of magical power was this? A bowl of water could choke an entire house to death?

After recovering from his shock, Xu Qing looked at Old Lady Cao's body and the "Duren Jing" gave an assessment: a middle-grade human.

The reward is a water walking technique.

River salt transportation is inseparable from water transportation, and water transportation is inseparable from ships.

But water walking skills can get rid of the constraints of ships and allow people to walk on the waves as if they were walking on flat ground.

This thing is great! Linhefang is close to the river, and Tianjin is also a water city. Who knows when he will be able to use it.

Coming back to his senses, Xu Qing looked at the dry ground in the morgue sprinkled with lime powder, and completely gave up the idea of ​​trying water walking.

At this moment, a commotion could be heard in the distance. Xu Qing turned his head to look at Xuan Mao, who was squatting at the door watching the show, and asked, "What's going on outside? Where's Senior Brother Wang?"

Xuan Yu said excitedly, "A few people wanted to come in, but Senior Brother Wang wouldn't let them in. Now two groups are at the gate, and it looks like they're about to fight!"

"."

Xu Qing's heart trembled, and he no longer cared about the salvation of the remaining corpses.

He took out the corpse-driving bell and chanted the corpse-driving spell, summoning all the corpses except Old Lady Cao.

Looking at the already liberated Old Lady Cao, Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, then suddenly turned to look at Xuan Yu and asked, "Xuan Yu, Immortal, there's a mission for me to go out on a quest. Do you want to do it?"

Although there are no prominent officials in the patrol office, the cohesion of the clerks and runners is extraordinary.

They knew each other every day, and now Wang Lingyuan joined forces with the head of the Lifang to block the salt officials outside the Lifang compound.

Although he did not explain the reason to the head of the clerk's office, he made a promise, that is, as long as he could gain a stick of incense, he would have a chance to reverse the current situation.

Zhao Zhonghe, who came over halfway, didn't understand what was going on, but when he saw people from his own yamen trying to block the road, he joined in.

Now the two groups of people were arguing fiercely outside the official compound.

The Inspector General of Salt wanted to transfer the body to the Salt Transport Bureau for safekeeping, but Wang Lingyuan said that the body was being examined and had reached a critical stage, and that progress would be made soon.

The Linhe County Magistrate yelled at several people to get out of the way, but his hand kept pulling the Salt Inspector out.

Although he didn't know what was wrong with his coroner, judging from his appearance, he had probably found a breakthrough in the case.

A group of people were arguing endlessly, and when the situation was about to get out of control, a clerk suddenly ran out of the clerk's office in panic, shouting:
"Bad! Bad!"

Everyone fell silent instantly. The head of the clerk's office frowned and shouted, "What are you yelling about? How did that become a disaster?"

The clerk's face turned pale and he said, "It's a lie! It's a lie!"

"Who is pretending to be dead?"

"Those bodies in the morgue are all frauds!"

(End of this chapter)