On this walk over, Qin Mu still had no idea exactly what he'd done wrong to alarm the Demon Suppression Division.
He wasn't all that panicked, though, because the moment he called out, no matter where the Ruyi Jingu Bang was, it would instantly appear at his side under the influence of the Qiankun Realm.
Walking beside him, the full-bearded Captain kept observing him out of the corner of his eye the whole way.
Seeing that Qin Mu's expression didn't change at all even while shackled by these Demon Suppression Division men, he couldn't help but feel secretly delighted.
"What a fine specimen!"
"How did no one notice this man before now?"
Before long, they arrived at the Demon Suppression Division yamen.
After entering the main hall, Qin Mu noticed a middle-aged man in black armor sitting in a chair, sipping tea from a cup.
Once he was brought in alone, the middle-aged man asked coldly without even lifting his head, "You're Qin Mu?"
Since Qin Mu was shackled and couldn't bow properly, he simply spoke up. "This unworthy one is indeed Qin Mu."
The middle-aged man set his teacup down on the low table beside him, picked up a sheet of paper from the table, and read its contents aloud. "According to the records, in the third month of last year, you participated in the Ascension Ceremony held by the Misty Sect, but were eliminated in the first round of assessment for lacking a Spiritual Root."
"Is this true?"
Hearing his question, Qin Mu suddenly understood — it seemed the Demon Suppression Division had brought him here because he'd unexpectedly developed a Spiritual Root.
He just wasn't sure how the Demon Suppression Division had found out he already possessed one.
Since he'd crossed over into this body, the only people he'd interacted with were Uncle Cang, Steward Liu and his wife, and Zhao Yuanjing, whom he'd met on the road.
After thinking it over, he simply admitted to it.
"It's true."
The middle-aged man set down the paper and said, "Someone, bring the Spirit Testing Stele."
No sooner had he spoken than, as if already prepared for this, two men carried in a stone stele as tall as a person.
With a thud, the Spirit Testing Stele was set down behind Qin Mu.
Right after, the two men undid his shackles.
The middle-aged man sneered. "You see this Spirit Testing Stele? There are five lines on it, representing Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. Beside each line are marked a number of values — those numbers are the measure of one's Spiritual Root."
"Now put your hand on it. Let's see if you really have no Spiritual Root!"
At this, Qin Mu could only turn around and slowly raise his hand to place it on the stone stele.
After a few breaths, a thin golden line appeared in the recessed vertical groove beneath the character for "Metal," and rose steadily at a visible pace up to the value of 10.
But the thin line on the stele didn't stop there — it continued climbing steadily past 20, 30, 40, 50.
By this point, the middle-aged man's eyes had already widened subconsciously.
He'd only learned of someone like Qin Mu after receiving notice from above.
And when he'd had people look into Qin Mu's records, he'd immediately found it strange.
The man had taken part in the Misty Sect's Ascension Ceremony the previous year and had been eliminated in the very first round for lacking a Spiritual Root.
Yet the secret decree he'd received stated that this person's Spiritual Root was far from weak, and recommended recruiting him into the Demon Suppression Division.
What's more, the seal stamped on that secret decree wasn't from any of his superiors — it was the seal of the State Preceptor himself!
Which meant this order had come personally from one of the five Earthly Immortals Residing in the World.
He didn't dare doubt that person's judgment for even a moment, so that left only two possibilities — either the records were mistaken, or something was off about Qin Mu himself.
That was why Qin Mu had been shackled in the street and hauled off to the Demon Suppression Division.
Now, watching the thin golden line finally stop after passing 50, settling at a value of 57, the middle-aged man's expression instantly turned cold.
"Explain yourself. Where did your Spiritual Root come from?"
Unhurried, Qin Mu gave a cupped fist salute and said, "This one once traveled with his parents to Baizhou City to purchase goods. Along the way, my parents were killed by bandits, and on the way back, we were caught in a torrential downpour."
"Since this one has been frail and sickly since childhood, after being caught in that rain, I grew dizzy and disoriented. I only remember eating a piece of fruit, and then, after returning to handle my parents' funeral, I fell gravely ill and couldn't get up."
"When I woke, I found something was off with my body — every so often I'd feel a wave of coolness rising from my tailbone."
"This one originally thought it was just my imagination, but a few days ago I happened to run into my close friend Zhao Yuanjing on the street. He told me about the Vermilion Fruit, and mentioned that it could reshape one's Spiritual Root. That's when I began to suspect I might have mistakenly eaten an Immortal Fruit similar to the Vermilion Fruit that day, which caused the change in my body."
After hearing this, the middle-aged man's expression remained stern.
"Vermilion Fruit?"
"Zhao Yuanjing?"
He murmured those words softly to himself, then immediately gave the order. "Someone, bring Zhao Yuanjing here!"
Before long, Zhao Yuanjing was forcibly dragged in, wearing nothing but a soaked pair of white underwear, his chest covered in several red lip-print marks.
He was already scared out of his wits, his face deathly pale, his whole body trembling nonstop.
The moment the two men supporting him let go, he immediately collapsed to the floor.
The middle-aged man glanced at Zhao Yuanjing's soaked white underwear with disdain, then looked over at the two men standing behind him.
One of them cupped his hands and said, "Reporting, Baihu — this subordinate dragged him out of a Brothel, and he was so frightened he wet himself right then."
Hearing this, the disdain on the middle-aged man's face grew even more pronounced, and he waved his hand repeatedly. "Quickly, take him out and hose him down. That stench of urine is stinging this official's eyes."
The two men gave an awkward smile and dragged Zhao Yuanjing out of the hall, dousing him with several buckets of cold water straight over the head by the well. Only once the smell had faded did they bring him back into the hall.
After being doused with several buckets of cold water, Zhao Yuanjing had come back to his senses, though his mind was still somewhat foggy.
Trembling, he didn't dare speak, kneeling there with his head lowered, perfectly obedient.
The middle-aged man asked coldly, "Zhao Yuanjing, you're just an ordinary commoner — how would you know about the 'Vermilion Fruit'?"
Zhao Yuanjing hurriedly blurted out everything — that he had a distant cousin who was an Inner Sect Disciple of the Misty Sect, who had rendered meritorious service and become the student of an Elder, thereby receiving a Vermilion Fruit.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man raised a hand and pointed at Qin Mu standing beside him, asking, "Do you know him?"
Zhao Yuanjing turned his head, and upon seeing Qin Mu, his expression immediately changed.
Qin Mu, meanwhile, just grinned at him.
Zhao Yuanjing assumed Qin Mu had done something wrong and dragged him into it. Especially upon seeing that "up to no good" grin on Qin Mu's face, he immediately crawled forward a few steps on his knees, crying out, "My lord! My lord! This lowly one has no connection to him whatsoever — our two families are even sworn enemies! Whatever he's done, it has absolutely nothing to do with me!"
The middle-aged man said coldly, "But he claims it was you who put him up to coming to the Demon Suppression Division to steal a Vermilion Fruit!"
At these words, Zhao Yuanjing's face went even paler, and he kowtowed repeatedly. "My lord! My lord! This lowly one has been wronged! I merely ran into him on the road and boasted to him about how I was about to obtain a Vermilion Fruit."
The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is that really so?"
Zhao Yuanjing nodded rapidly like a chicken pecking at rice, saying hurriedly, "This lowly one would never dare speak a single lie. I really did just chat with him about the Vermilion Fruit — nothing else was discussed at all."
The middle-aged man nodded at once. "Very well, you may go back for now... but if this official finds out you've been hiding anything, your entire family won't escape death!"
As if pardoned from a great sentence, Zhao Yuanjing kowtowed in thanks, then scrambled to his feet and fled the place, his heart still pounding with fear.
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