Lu Chengyuan sighed again. He had lost count of the number of times he had done so over the past week and a bit.
The reports felt so heavy in his hands as he made his way toward his meeting with the City Lord. He couldn't help but curse the boy responsible for all this extra work in the first place.
All he had needed to do was wait.
Spirit Hall could have handled the situation, and the current state of affairs would have been considerably less troublesome.
Lu Chengyuan drew in a deep breath, only to release it in yet another sigh.
It wasn't that he couldn't understand the boy. He did.
But when that understanding left him dealing with a mess like this, some of his sympathy inevitably wore a little thin.
His steps slowed before eventually coming to a stop in the middle of the street.
The people around him simply parted and continued on with their day, barely paying the stationary deacon any attention.
Lu Chengyuan remained where he was and looked around.
At first glance, nothing seemed particularly different. Shops were open. Carts rolled along the street. Merchants called out their prices while people went about the same routines they always had.
Yet compared to the weeks before, something was missing.
There was less laughter. Fewer people lingered simply to talk. Movements that had once blended into the liveliness of the city now seemed almost mechanical, people going through the motions because there was work to be done and a day that still needed living.
Here and there, he caught something else as well: a faint sense of unease.
The fact that they had yet to make a proper announcement regarding Patriarch Ruan likely had a great deal to do with it.
He continued toward the City Lord's mansion.
A change in the wind brought a faint bitter smell with it.
Lu Chengyuan's gaze shifted toward the source.
From this part of the street, the Ruan estate was already visible.
The towering columns of smoke from that night were long gone, but the damage left by the fires remained. Sections of the once-pristine walls were streaked black with soot. Here and there, plaster had blistered away entirely, exposing scorched stone and timber beneath.
Other sections had survived almost untouched, evidence of where the fires had been brought under control before they could spread further.
Even after more than a week, the smell of burnt wood still clung stubbornly to the place.
The steady ring of hammers reached him from beyond the walls as workmen laboured to repair what the fires had damaged.
Voices mixed with the scrape of timber and stone, carts moving in and out through the estate gates.
The Ruan family had survived, even if the man who had once stood at its head was gone.
Still, considering the man's true identity, perhaps it was for the best that he was gone.
He shook himself from his ruminations and resumed his walk toward the City Lord's mansion.
By the time he finally reached the gates, a thin layer of sweat had already formed across his brow. The considerable weight of the reports in his arms certainly hadn't helped.
Then again, several years' worth of records being screened, compared and eventually condensed into a single report tended to produce something rather substantial.
He had spent most of the past week interviewing witnesses, recording statements and reviewing everything they had managed to uncover before collating the relevant material into the thick, tome-like report he now carried.
All that remained was to present their findings to the City Lord, decide how they were going to proceed from here, and then, hopefully, he could finally consider the matter dealt with.
The guards let him through easily enough once he showed his Spirit Hall token, and a steward led him through the well-maintained halls of the City Lord's mansion until they reached a tastefully decorated study.
The City Lord sat behind a broad table, a cup of tea in one hand as he read through several documents. An aide stood quietly off to the side.
The moment Lu Chengyuan stepped across the threshold, the City Lord's eyes lifted from the page.
"Ah, Deacon Lu. You've finally come. I've been eagerly awaiting your report on the Ruan situation."
He placed the document down and steepled his fingers together.
"I followed your advice and held back from announcing anything beyond the fact that we were conducting a joint investigation. I do hope you've brought me something I can actually work with."
Lu Chengyuan stared at him for a moment, one eyebrow twitching.
"Really? I spent the last week running all over the city, digging through old records, calling in witnesses and requesting that those old enforcers collect and sort through everything they remembered, and I rush over first thing only for you to start interrogating me?"
He huffed indignantly.
"Not even a cup of tea? Is this how City Lord Han greets an old friend?"
Han Jingshan's expression remained perfectly composed as he motioned toward his aide.
"Zhao Rui, go with Steward Fu and have a fresh pot brought in."
The two acknowledged the order and left, closing the doors behind them.
The instant the doors clicked shut, Han Jingshan shot to his feet.
He rounded the desk in several hurried steps, seized Lu Chengyuan by the front of his robes and gave him a furious shake.
"You still have the nerve to play coy?! Do you have any idea what I've had to put up with this past week?"
Lu Chengyuan barely had time to respond before Han continued pouring out his grievances.
"Two of the great families in this city have been breathing down my neck, constantly demanding that I take action! If this goes on much longer, they'll convince the third family to join them, and then I'll really be in trouble!"
He gave Lu Chengyuan one last aggrieved shake.
"Spare a thought for this old friend of yours and please tell me you found something!"
"Stop… shaking… me… and… I… will…"
Han Jingshan stopped immediately and eyed him suspiciously.
"You're not stringing me along, are you? Because if you've got nothing after all this and I've spent a week stalling them for nothing, I really am screwed."
Lu Chengyuan steadied himself before answering, his head still slightly dizzy from the shaking.
"Yes, so please, let's just sit down before I fall over."
Han Jingshan immediately guided him toward a seat with all the care afforded an honoured guest before hurrying back to his own, staring at Lu Chengyuan with undisguised anticipation.
Lu brought the heavy tome forward and unceremoniously dropped it onto the desk with a solid thud before pushing it across to him.
Han Jingshan immediately opened it somewhere near the middle.
"I recommend starting at page one."
Han Jingshan glanced up.
"Unlike those other reports you're always complaining about, I didn't waste the first several pages on pleasantries."
He flipped back to the first page and spent the next few minutes scanning through the report.
When he finally closed it, he let out a slow breath. He had barely scratched the surface, but what little he had read was already troublesome enough.
"Ruan Zhiming. Patriarch of the Ruan family, possessor of the Double-Headed Bat Martial Soul, and a Spirit Emperor. Let's start here."
Placing both palms on the desk, he continued.
"What is Spirit Hall's stance on him, and on the family he left behind?"
Lu Chengyuan leaned back slightly in his chair, relaxing now that they had finally reached the matter at hand.
"Spirit Hall's stance is that Ruan Zhiming was indeed the fugitive who escaped us nine years ago. He led a murderous band of Spirit Masters who robbed and killed numerous merchants and families before attacking the Su family within this very city. Spirit Hall intervened, most of his people were killed, and Ruan himself escaped."
His expression hardened slightly.
"As far as Spirit Hall is concerned, his fate was well deserved. His past finally caught up with him."
Han Jingshan nodded.
"Then we're aligned on that. And personally?"
"Couldn't have happened to a better person."
Lu gestured toward the tome on the desk.
"If you'd asked me before I dug all of this up, my answer would have been very different."
"Understandably. He was already here when we took up our posts. To think he managed to hide his past so thoroughly…"
Han shook his head.
"If it had come down to a fight, I doubt the city could have brought him down without paying a terrible price."
He sighed.
"Still, this finally gives me something to push back with. Once I put this in front of the two families, I doubt they'll be quite so eager to keep demanding an immediate manhunt."
His gaze dropped briefly to the tome.
"Some of this will have to be made public. How much…"
Han's fingers tapped slowly against the desk.
"That depends on how far the two families intend to push this matter. If they insist on dragging the city into their personal revenge, I'll have to explain exactly why I'm refusing it."
He looked toward Lu Chengyuan.
"Any objection to me having final say on that particular matter?"
"None from me. How you handle the families and the city announcement is your affair."
"Good. Then let's move on to the other half of this mess. The attackers."
He opened the tome again and flipped to a particular page.
"Let's begin with him. Su Yan, a Spirit Grandmaster, and the one whose grievance started all of this."
Han let out a thoughtful hum.
"Though, given his recorded strength, I find it difficult to believe he could have contributed much to a battle of this scale."
His eyes remained on the report.
"Are you certain your information on him is accurate? Or that he even took part in the fighting himself?"
Lu Chengyuan scoffed.
"I'm offended you would even ask. Spirit Hall's records are accurate. The boy regularly visits our branches to collect his stipend."
He gestured toward the report.
"As for whether he fought, witnesses repeatedly described those strange barrier constructs being used throughout the battle. The descriptions match what he demonstrated during his time in Stonegate's Great Spirit Arena far too closely to be coincidence."
Han Jingshan gave a considering hum.
"I still doubt a Spirit Grandmaster could have contributed enough to decide a battle like this. Which leaves the two women who accompanied him."
He flipped forward several pages, his brows slowly rising.
"Though I have to say, Chengyuan, for all the time you spent putting this together, their sections are remarkably thin."
"That's because there was remarkably little to find. The only useful information we managed to uncover was that the woman in red is called Nihilister and has apparently been around Su Yan since his days in Nuoding."
Lu's expression turned dubious.
"She was introduced there as a relative of Su Yan's master, Lin Qinglan, though I severely doubt that story."
"So, in the end, you still have nothing."
Lu let out a breath.
"Nothing that tells us who she actually is, no. Regardless, the attack does allow us to infer a few things about what she can do."
He gestured toward the report.
"The fight may have been brief, but it was hardly subtle. Multiple witnesses saw her fighting Ruan and sending waves of fire toward him. Given that, we have good reason to believe she was responsible for the fires throughout the estate as well."
His expression grew more serious.
"And that final blast that lit up the night was almost certainly hers. From that alone, we can safely place her combat strength at the Spirit Emperor level, if not higher. Whatever her actual rank may be, she has already proven she can contend with one."
"How about the other one, the one with white hair and a blindfold?"
"She's even worse."
Han raised an eyebrow.
"Information-wise," Lu clarified. "As far as we can tell, she simply appeared out of nowhere. The first reliable sightings of her were during Su Yan's time in Stonegate."
He tapped the relevant section of the report.
"The most we can infer is that she uses some form of bladed weapon. Several distinctive blade marks were found around the courtyard, and examination of Yueshan's remains revealed deep penetrating wounds consistent with a large blade."
"The fact that she was likely contending with both a Spirit King and a Spirit Ancestor at the same time also speaks volumes about her combat prowess."
Han Jingshan smirked.
"So, yet another reason not to stick our noses into this blood feud?"
"Right. Then what do you think we should do about Su Yan and his companions, Jingshan?"
"Honestly? I think we leave them alone."
Lu raised an eyebrow.
"Your reasoning?"
Han leaned back in his chair.
"Start with what we know. Ruan really was the fugitive from nine years ago, which means he really was responsible for killing the boy's parents. Whatever else we might think of how Su Yan handled it, this wasn't some random act of violence."
He paused for a moment.
"Then there's the attack itself. It was destructive, certainly, but considering the scale of the fighting, there were remarkably few casualties. There were still more deaths than I would have liked, but with a Spirit Emperor fighting in the middle of a burning estate, I expected far worse."
Han tapped a finger against the desk.
"Stonegate tells us something similar. He had every opportunity to kill those scammers and chose not to. The boy seems to have some sense of proportion. He doesn't simply kill because someone has crossed him."
His expression grew more serious.
"Which means I see very little benefit in turning a finished blood feud into an ongoing conflict. If we push him, everything we've seen suggests he'll push back. If we leave him alone, Ruan is dead and he has no reason to continue causing trouble."
Han shrugged.
"So unless he gives us another reason to act, I say no bounty and no active hunt. We record what happened, keep the information on hand, and leave him alone. At least, that's how I intend to handle it."
He gestured toward Lu.
"What Spirit Hall decides is another matter."
Lu considered it for a moment.
"So far, Su Yan has shown no hostility toward Spirit Hall itself. If anything, the fact that he came to me before attacking Ruan suggests the opposite. He was willing to let us handle the matter."
His mouth tightened slightly.
"He simply wasn't willing to wait long enough for us to do it."
Lu shook his head.
"Regardless, we have no intention of creating an enemy where there currently isn't one. I'll send the full report up the chain, but based on everything we've found, my recommendation will be the same as yours: no active pursuit unless he gives us reason to reconsider."
Han hummed in satisfaction.
"I do love it when we're aligned on things."
His expression sobered slightly.
"That leaves us with one final issue. The Ruan boy."
Lu Chengyuan grimaced.
"There isn't much we can do beyond leaving him in the care of his surviving family. When I interviewed him and the maid, he was still deeply shaken. He barely responded to anything I said, and she seemed to be the only person capable of getting much of a reaction from him."
Lu fell silent for a moment.
"For now, at least, there's no telling how long it will take him to recover."
Han shifted in his chair.
"I have to admit, I was surprised the boy was spared. It wouldn't be the first blood feud to end with the entire family being wiped out."
Lu frowned.
"For my part, I'm glad he chose to spare him. The sins of the father should not be inherited by the son."
Han raised his hands in surrender.
"That's not what I'm saying. I'm just pointing out how these things can end."
The door opened again, and Zhao Rui stepped inside with a fresh pot of tea and a few cups balanced on a wooden tray.
"The tea, City Lord Han. Deacon Lu."
"Thank you, Zhao Rui."
Zhao Rui began pouring the tea.
Han glanced back toward Lu.
"What about the Ruan family themselves? With how much they've been pressuring me, there may be something I've overlooked. How culpable are they in all of this?"
Lu picked up the freshly poured cup and took a sip, letting out a quiet breath as the warmth soothed his dry throat.
"As far as our investigation can establish, not at all. We found nothing suggesting they knew about Ruan's past or actively helped him conceal it, and absolutely nothing linking them to his original group."
He lowered the cup slightly.
"As far as Ruan's past crimes are concerned, the surviving family is innocent. That's also why I saw no reason for Spirit Hall to interfere with the boy remaining in their care."
"I think I'll still keep a closer eye on them for the time being."
"Up to you."
Han took a drink from his freshly filled cup.
"At least we've settled everything else. All that's left is working out the final wording of the public announcement once I've spoken with the two families again."
His shoulders slumped slightly.
"Hopefully for the last time."