Are you really trying to cultivate immortality? Something feels off.

Above are rows of names.

"These are the casualty lists of Chidi that Mother had compiled yesterday," Nie Zhao said. "I encountered corpses at Yangzhi Pass before I even entered Nanchuan. You're telling me you haven't captured any Chidi civilians for the Blood Moon Hall? Are you kidding me?"

"Impossible," Shen Yuan said coldly. "I said we haven't used civilians to make corpses, and that's it. The Ten Thousand Poisons Cave only holds fugitives or vicious slaves who have committed capital crimes. They are kept in the cave for pharmacists to experiment on or to make Gu. That's why they were given to the Blood Moon Hall. How could they be so stupid as to harm the people of Chidi?"

Nie Shiyun frowned slightly, looking at her mother's stern face, and mustered her courage to speak softly, "Mother..."

Nie Qingyi turned her head and looked over: "Hmm?"

"I," Nie Shiyun's lips turned pale as she glanced at Shen Yuan, "I stayed in the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave for two years and indeed saw prisoners being sent out one after another, in large numbers."

Nie Qingyi frowned slightly and walked over: "Yun'er, tell the truth, don't side with your father."

"No," Nie Shiyun quickly shook her head, "I'm not lying, it's true. Father needs to help the Blood Moon Hall refine corpse figures, and the prisoners from the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave are enough. Why arrest ordinary people? Besides, there are still plenty of people left in the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave, it's not like we don't have enough, why go there..."

Her voice lowered, as if she were afraid: "Arrest them."

Nie Zhao coldly said, "Regardless of whether what you said is true or false, even if you did not capture any civilians and hand them over to the Blood Moon Hall, it is true that the Blood Moon Hall transported corpses to the border of Nanchuan in order to help you control the border defense, resulting in the injury of the people of Chidi."

"Those idiots from the Blood Moon Hall can't do anything right, and I'm the only one left to clean up their messes," Shen Yuan chuckled softly, stood up and looked at her, "If you want to pin it on me, I'll accept the punishment. My wife is the head of the Nanchuan family, so it's only right that she takes my life. It's not your place to talk nonsense here."

"Who do you think you are?" Nie Zhao narrowed her eyes slightly. "Could it be that I, Nie Zhao, am a phoenix maiden destined by heaven, and you, a man who rose to power by serving my mother, are somehow above it all?"

"Regarding matters concerning the land," she said coldly, "there is not a single thing that I, Nie Zhao, cannot interfere with."

"You." Shen Yuan looked at her with a sinister gaze.

"Senior Sister," a head popped up beside her, "Last night, people from the Blood Moon Hall came to steal something—a roster, quite important. Little Dragon Hall and I retrieved it for you."

Hearing the voice, Nie Zhao turned his head and frowned at the two of them: "Where did you two go? Why are you only coming back now? Do you know that Little Snake and Yu Xintang were so worried when they woke up this morning and found your room empty that they took the servants out to look for you?"

Tan Suiting's head popped out, his expression unchanged: "Those people ran too fast; we chased them for a long time."

Xie Weixing took out the roll of names: "Last night, things happened suddenly. When Long Dian and I saw that the highest cultivation level of that group of people was only the Nascent Soul Realm, we chased after them first. The things they came to the Nie Mansion to get despite the danger must be important."

Nie Zhao took the roll of roster, opened it, and frowned after reading half of it before handing it to Nie Qingyi.

"Something's not right, Mother," she said.

Nie Qingyi took it in her hand and examined it carefully.

This booklet records in detail the number of death row inmates transferred from the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave, the number of corpses made daily, and the detailed addresses and times of their delivery to various places along the Nanchuan border.

Even Shen Yuan was unaware of the existence of this booklet.

"My senior brother and I have calculated that these are all death row inmates transferred from the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave by the Blood Moon Hall to be used to refine corpses, totaling three hundred and forty people," Tan Suiting said. "But the number of corpses sent out from the Nie Mansion every day adds up to four hundred."

Nie Zhao raised his eyes: "So, the Blood Moon Hall sent out sixty corpses without Shen Yuan's knowledge?"

"Yes." Xie Weixing nodded.

Shen Yuan took the booklet, flipped through it for a moment, and looked up, saying, "The extra sixty are mixed in with the corpses sent out every day. There are about two or three extra in each batch, so they won't be noticed."

He continued flipping through the pages, frowning as he came across several locations.

Nie Qingyi narrowed her eyes: "What's wrong?"

"There's a problem," Shen Yuan pointed to the strongholds on the roster. "These places appear frequently, bordering Yangzhi Pass to the south and the Demon Realm to the north. They're not the places I ordered them to focus their defenses on."

"These locations all have one thing in common: they are all located near the same area."

He raised his eyes and chuckled, "Northern Imperial Guard."

The group of people all felt a chill run down their spines.

"The Blood Moon Hall is full of wolfish ambitions. Not content with cooperating with me, they have also colluded with the Northern Imperial Guard," Shen Yuan sneered. "After they refined the corpses at the Nie Mansion, they divided the extra sixty corpses into several batches and secretly transported them to the border, then to Yangzhi Pass, and finally to the Northern Imperial Guard."

"When I heard the news of the injured people, I found it strange. Although the Blood Moon Hall people are stupid, they are not stupid enough to lose control of the corpses and let them go out to hurt the people of Chidi. So I sent people to investigate, but before I could receive any news, you came back."

Shen Yuan flipped to the last page of the roster in his hand, closed it casually, and said with interest: "Then it seems that the plague in Yangzhi Pass was fake, and the bandits were fake too. It was all just a rumor spread by the Northern Imperial Guard and the Blood Moon Hall to capture people and make them into corpses."

Xie Weixing looked at the pale, sickly man in front of her.

To be able to figure out the whole story from just a list of names and a few addresses—how could someone with such a mind make such a mistake?

Indeed, favoring sons over daughters is harmful, and favoring daughters over sons is also harmful.

He gently tilted his head, leaned close to Tan Suiting's ear, and whispered, "Now I know why he was able to ruin the Nie family like this."

"Mother," Nie Zhao began, "what about the Northern Imperial Guard's collusion with the Blood Moon Hall to harm the people of Yangzhi Pass?"

When she and her fellow disciples arrived at Yangzhi Pass that day, they saw corpses everywhere and assumed that Chidi had fallen. Now it seems that Shen Yuan was not lying; he did not harm the people of Chidi.

"Yangzhi Pass is not within the territory of Nanchuan," Nie Qingyi said coldly. "The evidence is insufficient to accuse the Northern Imperial Guard of massacring and killing people in the city."

Nie Qingyi turned around and looked at Shen Yuan: "But it is true that you colluded with the Blood Moon Hall to harm the people, and it is also true that Xiao Yun was imprisoned in the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave for two years."

Nie Shiyun's face was pale, her jaw was taut, and her close-fitting light-colored clothes accentuated her overly thin shoulders and back. Compared to the bright, flamboyant, and plump second young lady of the Nie family four years ago at Wanjian Mountain, she was simply a different person.

Nie Qingyi looked at him, gently gritting her teeth, seemingly with some hatred: "You will also go to the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave for two years, not a day less."

"Mother," Nie Shiyun's eyes widened, and she blurted out instinctively, "Father will die!"

Shen Yuan was physically weak and would cough even when the weather was cold, let alone being sent to the Ten Thousand Poisons Cave.