After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

Cui Yan, dressed in plain clothes, stood on one side of the mourning hall with a solemn expression.

The time has come.

He stepped forward, faced the crowd, and spoke in a deep voice, his voice projected with internal force, clearly echoing in everyone's ears:

"Please thank the Crown Prince and offer sacrifices on behalf of your father!"

All eyes instantly focused on Xie Jinchen's striking mourning clothes.

Xie Jinchen gazed silently at the cold memorial tablet, at the blood-stained broken armor and sword before it.

The wind swept across the slope, lifting the plain white curtains of the mourning hall, and also blowing the linen cloth hanging down his forehead and the few strands of black hair scattered across it.

He bent over, touching his forehead to the ground, and remained there for a long time.

Inside and outside the mourning hall, there was complete silence, save for the mournful sound of the wind.

When he straightened up again, his forehead was covered in dust.

Xie Jinchen spoke, his voice clear:

"Father…"

This call was dry and heavy, as if it had traveled thousands of miles before finally reaching the lips.

"You unfilial son has come to see you off."

This single sentence brought tears to the eyes of many soldiers, both inside and outside the mourning hall, who had interacted with Xie Dai.

Xie Jinchen paused, his gaze sweeping over the blood-stained armor plate, his Adam's apple bobbing violently:

"When you taught me how to use a sword, the first lesson was that the sword is the blade of the heart, and it must be straight and upright. You said that the backbone of the Xie family's sons should be like the north wind, unbreakable and unyielding."

Low sobs could be heard from the crowd.

"You guarded the northern border for many years, never dying under the enemy's blade, yet on my own Xicang land, outside Qingzhou City, you were shot to death by a group of unidentified men in black, who, under the pretext of being ordered to kill you, riddled with arrows!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd erupted in chaos.

Although there had been rumors before, the weight of Xie Jinchen's words was completely different.

"Lord Duke!" A veteran of the Northern Army knelt down with a thud, banged his head on the ground, and wailed loudly.

"Heaven has no eyes! What have the loyal and virtuous done wrong!" Among the gentry and civil officials, some beat their chests and stamped their feet, looking up at the sky and sighing.

Xie Jinchen slowly stood up, facing the dark mass of people outside the mourning hall.

Dressed in mourning clothes, his forehead covered in dust, yet his straight spine made him resemble a sword about to be drawn from its sheath, exuding a sorrowful and solemn aura.

He spoke, his voice carrying clearly across the field, drowning out the angry whispers of the crowd:

"I am deeply grateful to all of you for being here today to bid farewell to my father!" He clasped his hands in a deep bow.

After the ceremony, he straightened up, his gaze sweeping across the entire room, and his voice suddenly turned stern:

"My father, Xie Dai, dedicated his life to the country and its people, risking his life in countless battles. He has no regrets before Heaven and Earth, before the Emperor, and before the people of this Xicang land! Yet—"

Xie Jinchen pointed sharply at the broken armor and sword before the memorial tablet, "Loyal and virtuous people have been wronged, their blood stained the wilderness, and they have no place to be buried! History may be altered, but can the hearts of the people be completely deceived?"

"I, Xie Jinchen, ask for nothing more than the truth! A truth that can comfort my deceased father's spirit in heaven, a truth that will dispel the disheartening spirits of my millions of soldiers in Xicang, and a truth that the people of the world can know!"

He took a deep breath, as if trying to inhale all the grief and injustice of the world into his chest, and then transform it into resolute words that he spoke:

"Heaven will judge loyalty and treachery, and the people's hearts cannot be deceived! My father was honest and upright all his life, yet he was rewarded with a heart full of arrows."

At this point, Xie Jinchen's voice trembled uncontrollably:

"As a son, one must never forgive the enemy of one's father! As a subject, one should remonstrate with one's life against a foolish ruler! As descendants of the Xie family, the name of loyalty and righteousness passed down through generations must not be dishonored!"

He abruptly drew the sword from the waist of the soldier beside him; the blade flashed with a chilling light, pointing straight to the sky.

"Today, I, Xie Jinchen, hereby swear—"

Xie Jinchen's gaze, like a burning flame, swept over the memorial tablets, and finally seemed to pierce through the void, looking up at the unreachable yet imposing temple high above:

"I will use this body and this sword as my witness, searching high and low, to uncover the truth and bring the murderer of my father to justice! If this hatred is not avenged and this injustice is not redressed, I, Xie Jinchen, swear I will not be human! Even if the road ahead is fraught with danger, even if I must defy the might of Heaven, I will persevere to the death!"

The sound reverberated for miles around the hillside, soaring straight into the sky.

Immediately, someone shouted, "Investigate the truth behind Duke Xie's wrongful death!"

"To seek justice for Duke Xie!"

Immediately afterwards, like tinder being ignited, the crowd became enraged.

Just as the mournful roars shook the heavens and the earth.

Behind the mourning hall, in a secluded corner unnoticed by anyone, Jiang Dusheng was standing there at some unknown time.

Dressed in simple white, she stood in the bleak autumn wind, her clothes and a few loose strands of hair fluttering in the breeze, like a fairy maiden detached from the world.

At this moment, her face was calm, her eyes were slightly closed, but a cold and vast aura, completely different from the grief and indignation around her, was faintly flowing around her.

Jiang Dusheng raised his hand and quickly drew several runes in the void. Spiritual power flowed from his fingertips, stirring the invisible energy in this world.

Her lips parted slightly, her voice as soft as a dream:

"The moon condenses its essence, and the dark underworld governs winter."

"The laws of heaven and earth command, summoning snow to rise from the sky."

"disease!"

As soon as the incantation was uttered, the surrounding temperature suddenly dropped, spreading silently from her center.

As the last word fell, Jiang Dusheng pointed with his fingers, pointing towards the direction where Xie Jinchen was located in front of the mourning hall.

"Buzz!"

A deep, almost unbelievable tremor swept through the air.

The celestial phenomena changed abruptly.

The autumn sky, which had been gloomy and oppressive, suddenly became stormy and turbulent.

The gray clouds seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand, rapidly pressing down.

Immediately afterwards, a biting cold wind howled across Shilipo without warning, making the white curtains of the mourning hall flutter and the clothes of everyone flutter.

The sudden cold and strong winds caused the hair of the people in the room to become disheveled, and they exclaimed in surprise.

"It's...it's snowing?!" Someone looked up in surprise.

Tiny specks of light actually drifted down from the thick clouds.

At first, it was just fine snowflakes, but in the blink of an eye, it turned into a flurry of heavy snow.

Snowflakes fall in autumn.

The heavy snow fell without warning, and the pure white snowflakes instantly covered the yellow earth, turned everyone's shoulders and hair white, and also landed on the sword that Xie Jinchen had stuck in the ground.

The snowflakes quickly melted into water stains, which slid down the spine of the sword like tear tracks.

The world was shrouded in a desolate, pure white, except for the dark red bloodstains on the broken armor on the memorial tablet, which stood out starkly against the surrounding backdrop.

"My God! It's snow! Autumn snow!"

"Heaven has shown its power! There must be a great injustice! There must be a great injustice!" An old man knelt down in the snow, tears streaming down his face, and kowtowed repeatedly to the heavens.

"Your Excellency! Your Excellency, did you see that?! Even the heavens are sending snow to right this injustice for you!"

The crowd erupted in cheers.

The initial shock was quickly replaced by awe and indignation.

"Autumn snow falls, heaven and earth grieve! The Duke was truly murdered!"

Even God couldn't stand it anymore!

"Investigate! We must get to the bottom of this!"

Xie Jinchen's plain white mourning clothes blended almost seamlessly with the swirling snowflakes.

Snowflakes landed on his eyelashes, quickly turning into tiny water droplets that slid down the contours of his cold, handsome face. It was hard to tell whether they were snow water or something else entirely.