The letters were delivered by a rather suspicious-looking young man wearing black robes, along with more raw materials, several dozen yaren servants with their families, and a large amount of southerner paper money.

“I am a personal friend of lady Bai Caoren. I was instructed to deliver these letters to you personally, due to their potentially sensitive content, and destroy them after you’ve familiarized yourself with them”

What kind of speech pattern was that? But the young man looked completely serious, the building materials were being carried to the top of the hill at this very moment, the semi-human immigrants built ad-hoc camp on the edge of the village, and a large bag was without a shadow of doubt filled with legitimate funds.

What could be the explanation for all that? He reached for Bai Caoren’s letter….

….only to have it taken away just as he was about to open it.

“Unfortunately, sir, I was instructed to have you read young master’s Lan Chaoxiang’s letter first. Otherwise, I was told, the contents of miss Bai Caoren’s letter might seem a bit cryptic….”

Young master, huh….Lan Caolu had no idea what was Bai Caoren playing at, but for now decided to start from the beginning and end at the end, so to speak.

The most important bits of his son’s letter went as follow

April 20th of the Changan Era year 81.

Dear father….(a bunch of pleasantries)

….hope your school is doing well ….(more pleasantries)….

….the yaren servants are great workers…promised them employment…hope you understand….feel free to pay their wages with the provided funds…..

Heavens!

Lan Caolu asked for advice, not…that! Whoever told him to make that decision in advance!? And now he would have to employ all these….animal people…..after all, his reputation would have suffered immensely if he sent them back after all the promises his irresponsible brat of the son made in his name….

“Sir, you are being immature. I also believe that yaren are best utilized in such fashion…”

“Interesting, why is that? Because they are a bit stronger than humans?” barked back Lan Caolu, not at all happy that the messenger is standing over him and giving him unwarranted feedback.

“No sir.” Suddenly the face of the messenger went serious, and a weird spark appeared in his eyes. “It’s because they can’t cultivate. Their only hope of employment in a society that treats them as second-rate citizens is servitude.”

That…was true. Lan Caolu didn’t really think about it from this perspective until now.

“Is this why my son sent them to me?” It pleased him greatly to think that Lan Chaoxiang is not only noble enough to fight for the sake of literal stray dogs, but also takes care of dog, cat, sheep, fox, and other types of animal people.

Alas…..

“Negative, sir. This is a fragment of Lady Bai Caoren’s worldview, that I too share.”

Ah…

“However, do not fret. I am positive your son will become, in time, positively influenced by the lady to perceive matters in a similar fashion, as well.”

….What? Lan Caolu quickly skimmed through the remained of the letter, and found the following passages.

…helped me solve the case….brilliant girl, I was wrong…getting married soon

Getting. Married. Soon.

..Ok that was quite a shock, but not exactly unpleasant news. However, wasn’t the Bai clan looking for the “highest bidder”? His son wasn’t exactly the wealthiest man, what warranted this marriage? Could this be an instance of forbidden love, a union born out of passion against the wishes of elders?

He imagined that stoic young woman getting involved in such an affair, and giggled involuntarily. No way!…By the way, what is the “case” Bai Caoren helped Lan Chaoxiang solve? He reread the passage he skimmed through before….

The previous grandmaster of the Songshu sect…we found evidence of his cooperation with a clan of demonic cultivators…and cornered him, defeated and brought to trial…he was found guilty on all accounts…Yao Erzhan is now the new leader of Songshu and sends you the raw materials and funds requisitioned from the heretics as a sign of good faith and future cooperation between Chenfei and Yafan….

Oh, so the funds are actually from Songshu sect. That explains.

Lan Caolu didn’t want to feel indebted to them, but then on the other hand, if his son helped solve the case, perhaps it was them who felt indebted to him and merely wanted to showcase their gratitude that way. Fine. He accepted that.

For my part in the investigation and the prolonged fighting with the rogue cultivators that ensued, I was awarded their mansion, which although located a distance away from the town, is a splendid…

Wait a minute…..

He skimmed through the letter to find any name associated with the aforementioned devil cultivators, but couldn’t find any. The contents of the message ended on a positive note, Lan Chaoxiang was looking forward to his future happy life with the girl he got engaged to and invited his father to the wedding…

“I take it you’ve finished, sir?” asked the messenger in a polite, neutral tone.

Since Lan Caolu was sitting with his head between his arms for a while, not moving nor saying a thing, it was indeed a very appropriate conclusion that he was very much done with absorbing its contents, and was now at the phase of digesting them at his very own pace.

“Perhaps you will feel better if you read the letter send by lady Bai, as well” suggested the young man after a rather long pause. The old man timidly nodded, and slowly opened the other message…..

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Master Lan, I hope you are doing well….

Skip the pleasantries…

Your son is a splendid young man, he made quite an impression on me….

That’s very good, but…

As you might have figured out already, the devil cultivators who were funding the corrupt former leader were none other than Wen clan. Their estate was sieged and their assets were requisitioned, and surviving members are wanted and hunted as we speak…

…but this makes no sense, they were only making artifacts? Shouldn’t they be trialed first?

By the time we arrived at their estate, most of the clan was already gone, and the only resistance we met was from the servants left behind…

….and the reason for that was a foolish action I undertook in the short window of time preceding the siege. After searching the inner sect facilities, and finding the evidence connecting the Wen clan to the former grandmaster of the Songshu, as well as evidence for their unorthodox cultivation practices, I thought that something is wrong and torn between my duty and my loyalty to miscreant Wen Feili, I foolishly chose the latter, and warned her of the incoming danger…

‘But you did nothing wrong’, Lan Caolu wanted to shout. His hands shaking, he nervously glanced at the messenger for confirmation, but the face of the young man remained as cold as ice. In that regard, he was very much like miss Bai. Perhaps they were related?

This is a sin I will probably regret for the rest of my life. For after searching their estate, we found evidence of not just illegal artifact forging but also necromancy…..

He had to reread this part multiple times. Necromancy!?

A human soul, after death, was supposed to move on in a cycle of reincarnation. The forbidden art that hindered that passage, and bid the soul back to a body or an object, was the most abhorrent form of demonic cultivation. It breaks the greatest taboo, and the miscreants who followed that forbidden path were mercilessly hunted down as far as written history goes…

And she’s saying that Wen clan dabbled in that? There is no way…! Necromancers are evil, and Wen Feili was….

True, he never got to know other members of her family. Perhaps she was an outlier…? But still, if they dabbled in necromancy, their land should had been soaked in resentful energy of the corpses that died in pain or with lingering regrets.

It wasn’t! He knew it wasn’t, there is no way he wouldn’t sense that….and besides, all the flowers and greenery looked so healthy, so much unlike the lands tainted by the courage of undeath!

We found several dissected bodies, one of the severed heads still animated and hostile, in the basement under their mansion….upon investigation, we traced them to the nearby cemetery, which had several of its graves freshly dug out, the contents of their graves emptied….

“I was informed you’d find it hard to believe. However, know that lady Bai was even more shocked. She had to fake happiness before the people of Songshu and your son, while in fact, she was hurting inside more than anyone…”

The snake-like eyes of the messenger once again narrowed as he was slowly speaking these words, some kind of hidden resentment hidden within.

Ah, the old man finally understood. This young man…was probably in love with Bai Caoren. He too was suffering in his own way…

“Just..let me be for a while…” asked Lan Caolu in a shaking voice.

“As long as we destroy the message right now, I’ll leave you for as long as you wish.” he extended his hand for the accursed message “know that it’s contents must never see the daylight, as they incriminate lady Bai…”

Ah, of course. Lan Caolu passed him the piece of paper, which went in flames almost as soon as it touched the messenger’s hand.

………..

It took him some time to collect himself and calm down enough to analyze the situation rationally.

If only he could meet Wen Feili and question her directly! Alas, she was considered missing, and the only way they were going to meet again is if she get captured…which, despite everything, he didn’t wish upon her.

The young man was waiting patiently in front of his house. He was a fine lad, and probably a good cultivator in his own right. That reminds him, he never asked….

“The reason why I personally volunteered for this job…” started the youth “is because I have a request for you, master Lan.”

“Oh? And what could that be?” the old man was tired, and felt like nothing can surprise him anymore.

“My younger brother, Chen Mengyao, recently manifested a golden core. Our family isn’t particularly prominent, but I want him to receive a proper sect education that will hone both his ability and character…” he bowed humbly “Thus, I was hoping you’d accept him as one of the first students in your newly established school….”

Lan Caolu waved his hand dismissively.

“It will be as you ask, I’ll do my best to give him the best upbringing….”

That’s right. He started this school…no, this sect…with a clear purpose in mind. His mission was to educate the future generation so that no corruption would arise in the future.

And no matter how shaken he was by the news he received, nothing changed in that regard. If anything, it only made his resolve stronger…

However, he promised himself not to ever use the funds requisitioned from the Wen clan….at least until he learns the truth of what happened that day, they would rest securely in the house the villagers build for him nearby Chenfei…