Tower. Lounge.

  A familiar lounge. Familiar furnishing. But today, all the furniture were shoved aside to welcome some uninvited guests.

  Gloomy sunlight filtered through the shielded tall window, falling upon the ring of masked beauties guarding the perimeter of the room.

  Though their black uniforms were rather conservative, they failed to hide their various well-defined shapes.

  Any men would find it hard to not give them a second look, including this time’s event host…

  Except that Bubai wasn’t really in the mood to admire flowers.

  Well, how can he be? After all, he was bound to a chair with his hands tied behind him.

  To make matters worse...

  Being the center of their attention, it felt like he was sitting in an ice cellar. Literally.

  Tap. Tap. The faint, almost imperceptible sounds of boots came from the stairway.

  In came two more enforcers.

  The one walking in front can’t be any more familiar. Tall, a long ponytail, jade green eyes, and an iconic serrated jade dagger.

  Officer Ponytail in the flesh.

  Chasing after her like a little fangirl was another stranger who was also sporting a ponytail, but her fiery ginger hair reminded Bubai of another temperament woman.

  Bubai originally hoped that hair didn’t have any ties to temper, but his hopes were dashed.

  "Deacon, this is the man we spent a lot of effort to capture!"

  Seeing somebody pointing fingers at him, Bubai immediately sat up and protested, "Miss, did you get something wrong? I didn’t even resist!"

  His refutation was only met with cold stares from all around.

  Okay Merlin, it seems they weren’t the reasonable type.

  "Deacon, I’ll get him to confess in no time! Just watch and let me do-"

  "No."

  Officer Ponytail left her little fangirl behind, coming to a stop right in front of Bubai.

  Bubai gave her a pleasant smile. “Senior sister, it’s been a while…”

  "Name." She got right to the chase.

  "Bubai. Mo Bubai. That, Sen-"

  "Age."

  "Er, I’ve turned 18. There’s no age restrict-"

  "Sex."

  "...Really?" Bubai feigned a surprised look, only for the machine to echo herself.

  "Sex."

  Bubai sighed dramatically. "Senior sister, if you really insist, I don’t mind showin-"

  Thump! Feeling the close shave happening down below, Bubai’s eyes tracked the cause to be the jade dagger inserted through the wooden chair… right in between his legs.

  Holy Merlin’s ducking beard. Too close. Too ducking close!

  His little brother similarly agreed and was screaming that miss dagger was too close for comfort. So, Bubai can only… be honest. "Male."

  "Cultivation."

  "Qi-refinement level nine."

  Those jade green eyes shot Bubai a look that seemed to pierce through his lies.

  Though Bubai suspected Officer Ponytail had a report on him that was as long as her ponytail, Bubai wasn’t intimidated.

  Want to see through his true cultivation?

  Heh. He even passed the test of the golden core geezer. Do these foundation stage tigresses have any hopes of figuring out more?

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Heck, even if they knock him out, they won’t be seeing any cultivation spike. Any Qi staying in his body’s dantian was what he wanted them to see!

  That’s the benefit of his hidden dantian! The Turtle Breathing technique was just the cherry on top.

  With both these door guards, there was no need to panic.

  The calm Bubai’s “honest” reaction seemed to have paid off because the others showed no suspicion.

  Officer Ponytail didn’t care to press any further. She simply got right to the point.

  "Two days ago. What did you do after you left Phoenix’s Nest?"

  Two days ago? Bubai checked the timestamps in his memory.

  The time wasn’t spot on, but his location definitely was.

  Huh... Bubai remembers catching sight of Officer Ponytail that night.

  Bubai wasn’t sure how long she was tracking him after their bump-in, but he was sure his itinerary can’t be hidden.

  “That night, if I remember correctly… after listening to the wonderful guqin performance, I didn’t do much else and headed right home. After that… uh… I don’t know.”

  “Don’t know?!” The little fangirl with a temper matched by her equally fiery hair butted in.

  “Ne! How do you not know what you did? This Miss just knew you were hiding something! Stop playing tricks and out with it!”

  Bubai put on a helpless look.

  “Miss, really sorry. I really don’t know. I just remember coming home, but then I was knocked out.”

  “Eh?! Knocked out?”

  “Yeah. One moment I’m on the upper floors, next thing I know, I wake up with a splitting headache, and my key to the tower is gone! Someone else must’ve taken it, probably the same person who attacked me!”

  The hot-tempered enforcer snorted. “Unknown assailant? Convenient excuse, don’t you think? You expect us to believe that?”

  “Miss, you gotta believe me! I’ve barely been introduced to the world of cultivation. With my watery skills, any random neighbor of mine can easily give me a knock on my head.”

  “Eh? Eh? Right, you’re so weak, it’s understandable… like I’ll believe that! Men, none of you are good things! You better be honest and fess up!”

  Just when the temper of the little fangirl flared once more, Officer Ponytail’s cold voice fished him out.

  “According to multiple witnesses, the missing Long Batian was last seen entering your tower. What do you have to say?”

  “Wait, wait, wait…” Bubai blinked innocently, “You’re saying this Long Batian guy is the one who entered my tower?”

  His question earned his chair leg a kick. “We’re not here to listen to you repeat what we said like a parrot! Just answer what we ask!”

  But, Bubai ignored the feisty chick and acted out his own play.

  “Heavens! I was wondering who knocked me out and stole my key!”

  The mask of innocence fell off and was quickly replaced by indignation. “Officers, you have to do me justice! I want to report that my property has been-”

  “We are not here to resolve your injustice.”

  The cold chill radiating from the jade dagger shut him up.

  Bubai swallowed and peeked toward its owner. Those eyes were like a stagnant pool. They really do say she doesn’t care. Really cold and unfair.

  Fortunately, he already served justice on his own, but they didn’t need to know that.

  Regardless, there was no need to say more. This world has no such thing as the right to remain silent, but...

  Say less, mess up less.

  The other party similarly didn’t press for more, as if waiting for something... or someone.

  Shortly after, that someone poked her head into the lounge.

  It was an enforcer, with short, raven-black hair side-swept over a unique raven-themed mask.

  “Reporting, deacon! We’ve combed the dungeons, but except for some old stains and bags of sand, we didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.”

  “The tower has also been searched. Aside from the traces of the break-in and battle, we didn’t find anything conclusive.”

  “Keep searching.”

  “Yes, deacon.”

  Her subordinate left and the cold eyes went back to observing Bubai. “Explain.”

  Bubai helplessly shrugged, “Everything was like that when I returned. I’m also not too clear what happened. Xiao Lan won’t tell me even after all the coaxing I did.”

  All parties fell silent, but Bubai felt the strange gazes from all the woman around him. That look… was it… pity?

  Why? It wasn’t hard to guess. They probably discovered the seed of pleasure implanted in Xiao Lan.

  It was too easy for their brains to come up with a full blown drama.

  Bubai personally knew Xiao Lan was still his own, but there was no need to correct them.

  Taking advantage of their fluctuating emotions, Bubai sighed and made a plea.

  "Look, officers. I am just minding my own business in my tower, enjoying a perfectly normal life with the one I swore to protect."

  "Then, all this mess barged into our lives. I’d love to help everyone figure things out, but I really can’t tell you what I don’t know."

  "Rather than keeping me here much longer, why not we just go our own ways, and pass this Blue Moon in peace. How?"

  His offer to make peace only earned him a few more kicks, this time, with his own legs eating a few hits.

  "You're trying to play innocent, eh? You think we don't know you're behind this?! Bet you did it just for revenge!"

  Bubai oozed out a few drops of sweat and smoothly leaned back in his chair.

  "I have no idea what you're talking about. I respect the Law Enforcement Hall and willingly cooperated, but now I’m being accused of a crime I don’t know? It’s a bit much, don’t you think?"

  Miss Hothead scowled. "Long Batian was last seen entering this tower, but no one saw him left. And now he's missing. Isn’t it obvious what happened?"

  “Missing?” Bubai feigned ignorance. “Maybe he found a better view from another tower?”

  “You think this is a joke?!”

  Grabbing his robe, Miss Hothead pulled him to her face and hissed, “We’ll find his body soon enough. Maybe we should just search your mind, see if you’re hiding a knife in that stupid smile of yours.”

  Bubai didn’t back off. “I’ve read up on the rules of the Law Enforcement Hall. It said inner disciples are exempted from any sort of memory searching unless permitted by an elder.”

  “Mind telling me if you have permission? If you don’t, I don’t mind helping you request for it from Elder Ma or Elder Mo. I’m quite familiar with them both.”

  “Don’t press us with the elders! Do you really think our Law Enforcement Hall is afraid of-”

  “Meigui.”

  The icy call cooled off Miss Hothead, and she released Bubai with a huff. “Don’t push your luck.”

  After the chair plopped back down onto solid ground, the rattled Bubai adjusted himself, uncomfortably nudging the dagger that almost cut his balls, and gave Officer Ponytail a pleading glance.

  Officer Ponytail ignored his plea, instead looking toward the raven-masked officer that rushed back into the room.

  Sidling up to her deacon, the raven cawed ever so softly, but just loud enough for the suspect to hear.

  “Deacon, we just recovered some critical memories from the victim upstairs. There’s no mistake. This rascal is the murderer.”