Lin Shen was annoyed and distracted by the system's alarm. He asked, "System, what happened on Xianling Island?"
After a short while, the system projected the scene from Shuiyue Palace on Xianling Island.
Shuiyue Palace was draped in white mourning cloth, and a dozen Daoist nuns sat in dead silence in the main hall. A middle-aged woman was holding Little Linger, who was weeping in her arms.
Lin Shen felt as though someone was missing from Shuiyue Palace. Scanning his memory carefully, he realized that the Daoist nun who had been guiding Zhao Ling'er during his last visit was gone.
Lin Shen asked, "System, the incident you mentioned... could it be that Palace Master Lingyue is in trouble?!"
The system replied, "Yes."
"How much time has passed in total from when I started cultivating until now?"
"Answering the host, a total of one year has passed. A new side quest is now available: Investigate the cause of the incident at Shuiyue Palace and find Palace Master Lingyue."
"There's no time to worry about side quests or main quests now. Let's head straight to Xianling Island."
Lin Shen immediately formed hand seals and chanted an incantation. A purple magic circle appeared beneath his feet, and with a flash of purple light, he was teleported to Xianling Island.
Lin Shen recalled that while the game only mentioned Palace Master Lingyue's grave, it never specified how she died.
In the original *Chinese Paladin*, Zhao Ling'er supposedly ascended to immortality, but looking through everyone in the Xianjian world, very few actually achieved physical ascension. Those who relied purely on spells without any external aid were pitifully rare, and at best, they only lived longer than ordinary people.
Besides, Palace Master Lingyue appeared younger than Granny Jiang, and Lin Qing'er had sacrificed herself to seal the Water Beast. So how was it that Granny Jiang was fine, but Palace Master Lingyue was gone first? Something was wrong here, and the problem might be quite serious.
Lin Shen wanted to eavesdrop from outside Shuiyue Palace, but the voices inside were too chaotic. He couldn't hear anything clearly, so he asked, "System, do you have any Invisibility Gu?"
"Answering the host, yes. They cost 200 system coins each, and last for half an hour."
Without time to think twice, Lin Shen bought one, swallowed it, and then tiptoed into Shuiyue Palace. Right then, he overheard some of the Daoist nuns whispering.
"Aqing, what on earth happened? The Palace Master was perfectly fine, so how could she just be gone? What are we going to do with Shuiyue Palace now?"
"Yeah. They said she went to Min to provide disaster relief, but she was swept away by the flood. Her remains weren't even recovered. Xiaoyu, what do you make of this?"
"I don't think it's right. The Palace Master's magic is extremely powerful. If it were just an ordinary flood, she would have been fully capable of protecting herself. How could she have been swept away?"
"I feel like there's something fishy going on here. Someone might have wanted to make a move against her in secret."
"Impossible. The Palace Master made friends far and wide; who would harm her for no reason, and who would even have the ability to cause such a massive flood?"
Listening from the side, Lin Shen got the gist of it and thought: *This incident is most likely the work of someone meddling. But logically speaking, with the Water Beast sealed away, who else could pull off something like this? Still, seizing the opportunity of a flood to strike isn't out of the question. It looks like I'll have to make a trip to Min.*
At that moment, Lin Shen noticed Little Linger, who was still crying. He wanted to comfort her with a few words, but it wasn't convenient to make a sound right now. With no other choice, he gently stroked Linger's back a few times before hurrying out of Shuiyue Palace. Sure enough, shortly after he stepped outside, the Invisibility Gu wore off.
Little Linger felt herself being stroked a few times and instinctively touched her own back. Granny Jiang asked, "Linger, what's wrong?"
Linger looked around and said, "Granny, I felt like someone touched my back just now."
Granny Jiang glanced around and said, "There's no one here. Aside from your senior and junior sisters, there's no one else."
Little Linger scratched her head and said, "Could I have been mistaken?"
After running out of Shuiyue Palace, Lin Shen found a hiding spot. Not long after, he heard a man and a woman talking.
"How did it go?"
"Already dead. The body was thrown to the feed the fish."
"Should we make our move now and take the little princess back?"
"Now is not the time yet; she hasn't reached the age of awakening. For now, we can only lie low and wait."
Hearing this, Lin Shen was stunned. *Palace Master Lingyue's death really was foul play! It looks like I need to capture someone alive to get some clues.*
Before long, the two split up. Lin Shen followed the man to the ferry dock and knocked him out when he least expected it. Lin Shen then tied him to a peach tree.
About half an hour later, the man regained consciousness. Finding himself tied up, he panicked instantly, looking around and screaming for help.
Lin Shen walked up to the man and asked, "Talk, what's going on with Palace Master Lingyue?"
"What do you mean, what's going on? What are you talking about? I don't understand."
Using his ring to transform it into a small knife, Lin Shen said, "I advise you to tell the truth and not force me to resort to violence. Otherwise..."
"Otherwise? Otherwise what?!"
Lin Shen drove the knife straight into the fellow's left leg. The man let out a continuous, agonizing scream.
Looking thoroughly impatient, Lin Shen said, "Even if you scream your throat out, nobody's coming to save you. Everyone in Shuiyue Palace is busy with the Palace Master's funeral right now, and they don't have time to deal with you. I'll give you one more chance: was Palace Master Lingyue murdered by you people?"
The fellow stubbornly kept his mouth shut and refused to speak. Lin Shen looked at him and said, "Fine, you've got guts. Have you ever heard of a Han Chinese form of execution called *Lingchi*, commonly known as death by a thousand cuts?"
The man instantly panicked a little. Lin Shen brandished the small knife, gesturing near the man's cheek as he said, "From what I understand, the highest recorded number is 3,600 cuts. While I don't know the intricacies of 3,600 cuts, I can practice on you. Then I could go become a coroner or something in the future."
Terrified out of his wits, the man wet his pants and hurriedly begged for mercy, "Don't! Don't! Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!"
Lin Shen tossed the knife aside and said with annoyance, "Speak."
The man took two deep breaths and said, "It was the Lord who ordered us to make our move."
"The Lord? Lord Baiyue?!"
"Yes, yes. The Lord considered that when the time comes to bring the little princess back to Miaojiang, the biggest obstacle would be Palace Master Lingyue. Now that informants have reported the little princess is practicing Five-Spirit Spells, they wanted to eliminate the Palace Master before the princess masters her magic to avoid future trouble. Since we learned there was a flood in Min recently, we got rid of her there."
"That doesn't add up. Palace Master Lingyue's magic is extremely powerful—how did you pull it off?"
"That's easy enough. We found a few people to disguise themselves as refugees, approached the Palace Master while she was handing out aid, and struck when she let her guard down. Then we just threw her into the water. Sure enough, her magic is strong, but she isn't immortal."
The more Lin Shen thought about it, the angrier he became. The dignified Palace Master Lingyue had died just like that at the hands of a bunch of rats.
"Where did you throw Palace Master Lingyue's remains into the water?"
"A fishing village in Quanzhou, though I forgot what the village was called."
"Thanks." With that, Lin Shen struck the man with a bolt of lightning, reducing him to dust. After dumping the fragments into the lotus pond, he used the Dimensional Travel Technique to reach Quanzhou.
After making inquiries everywhere, Lin Shen arrived at the spot where Palace Master Lingyue met her demise and summoned the system. "System, is there any way to fish Palace Master Lingyue's remains out of the water?"
The system scanned the surface of the water for a moment and successfully located the Palace Master, replying, "Yes, but it will cost 1,000 system coins."
Lin Shen was speechless, but figuring that saving people took priority and not wanting to bicker, he agreed.
Shortly after, a magic circle appeared beside Lin Shen, and the corpse of Palace Master Lingyue was teleported over.
Lin Shen inspected it and indeed found three knife wounds on the chest and two on the back. Judging by the width, they had been inflicted by daggers. Furthermore, her physical body had turned pale and bloated from prolonged immersion, and there were also dozens of wounds left by fish biting her.
Certain thoughts suddenly occurred to Lin Shen, so he used the Dimensional Travel Technique to bring Palace Master Lingyue's remains back into the Time Chamber as well.
(End of Chapter 5)