Putting aside the meaningless rewards that were gathering dust, Xu Qing finally looked at the only useful thing in his hand, a Truth Pill.
The so-called Truth Pill, as the name suggests, is a pill that can make people tell the truth.
This Qimen Elixir comes from a beggar family in Jin Sect, in the hands of the third-generation beggar Zhu Youshi.
Zhu Youshi was initially nameless, wandering when he was young, and halfway through, he acknowledged a beggar as his godfather. He was given the surname Zhu by his godfather, inherited the family business, and began begging with the ancestral broken bowl.
Begging also has its ways. You need to have an elder guiding you, know the streets and alleys, where the gatherings are on the first and fifteenth of the month, which families are kind-hearted, when the charitable people from the mansions will come out to give alms, and where not to go, where the people are vicious. These are all learning materials.
Once you are thoroughly familiar with your territory, you won't worry about three meals a day and can even get extra money for a drink and a few taels of meat to live it up for a while.
Zhu Youshi, coached by his gold-medal father, excelled in begging from a young age. There wasn't a single place in Jin Sect that he didn't know or was unfamiliar with!
This day, Zhu Youshi, as usual, carefully went out to beg but found that Jinmen Prefecture City seemed to have changed somehow.
He looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar streets, pondered carefully, and finally figured out what was wrong.
It turned out that there were half as many beggars on the streets of Jinmen Prefecture City, no wonder he felt out of place.
Zhu Youshi was puzzled, even his meals were less tasty. Whenever he had the chance, he wondered where everyone had gone to make their fortune?
Were there hidden begging spots in Jin Sect that he didn't know of, and everyone gathered there to beg?
Just like that, Zhu Youshi couldn't think straight about tea and meals. It wasn't until that night when masked robbers placed a knife to his throat that he understood the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of Jin Sect beggars.
The masked robber had a long upper body and a short lower body, speaking with a clear Jin Sect accent, Zhu Youshi glanced and recognized who it was.
"Brother Cai Jiu, aren't you working at the Government Office? Why are you out here causing trouble for me?"
The masked man, seeing his identity exposed, simply removed his mask and said straight away, "Since you know who I am, you should know that I came looking for you because you committed a crime!"
"A beggar committed a crime? Does begging have a sin?"
As soon as Zhu Youshi said this, Cai Jiu nodded.
"You figured it out, begging is indeed a crime in Jin Sect!"
Upon hearing this, Zhu Youshi widened his eyes and slapped his face, checking if he was dreaming.
"Brother Cai Jiu, don't joke, I've been begging in Jin Sect for forty years, never heard of this..."
"Never heard of it? Well, now you have! To be honest, Jin Sect is the most prosperous region of the Dayong Dynasty. Begging here disgraces the current emperor and the visiting Crown Prince."
"Out of old acquaintance, I'll give you a night. Be sensible and leave Jin Sect quickly!"
In the abandoned house, Zhu Youshi exclaimed, "I was picked up by my father, I grew up begging in Jin Sect, my godfather was also a beggar. How can I live if I leave Jin Sect? Brother Cai Jiu, don't forget two years ago, you fell under Shuimen Bridge and nearly drowned; it was I who jumped down to save you..."
"You can't repay kindness with enmity!"
Cai Jiu was about to leave but upon hearing this, his face darkened.
"Don't bring up old debts. If I let you go, where would Prefect save face? Would I still keep my job? I'm telling you now, if you don't leave, don't blame me for not remembering old kindness when I see you tomorrow."
Saying this, Cai Jiu spat on the ground and left the abandoned house.
The next day, Cai Jiu returned to the decrepit house and saw a rope hanging from the beam, someone was placing the loop around their neck.
Who else but Zhu Youshi?
Hearing the noise, Zhu Youshi turned to look at Cai Jiu, his mind suddenly igniting a spark. But upon seeing Cai Jiu suddenly stop stepping forward, he completely lost hope.
Thus, a three-generation beggar family tradition ended.
Xu Qing looked at the Truth Pill in his hand, not knowing what to say.
If you say Cai Jiu was ungrateful, he at least spoke heart to heart with Zhu Youshi, revealing the truth and giving him a chance to leave.
But if you say he cherished old kindness, then Cai Jiu watching his lifesaver being pushed to suicide without stepping forward was cold-hearted to the extreme.
Indeed, human hearts are hard to fathom. Who would have thought those dressed in red robes and black clothes were the true murderers of these beggars?
However, their purpose was merely to tidy up the image of Jin Sect for the Crown Prince's visit.
Considering the clues he obtained tonight, Xu Qing thought for a bit and understood the connections.
Currently, Emperor Longping is over eighty years old, even the Crown Prince is sixty-three, past the prime age.
At this critical time, if Emperor Longping happens not to catch his breath, the old Crown Prince will become the new Emperor.
'Wait! The Celestial Heart Sect rebels arrived at Jin Sect a few days ago, why exactly when the Crown Prince came on a tour?'
Xu Qing felt he inadvertently discovered an invisible web, harboring countless secrets.
Having just finished rescuing at the third-level courtyard, he turned his target to the first and second-level courtyards.
Besides the rewards from the Sutra of Salvation, Xu Qing now had a new motivation: to see if he could eat all the secrets around tonight!
In the fifth watch of the night, the night watchman struck the gong, shouting the old saying to sleep early and stay healthy. Messing around half the night at the workshop, Xu Qing finally finished.
After hurrying, he succeeded in rescuing the corpse workers from several courtyards. Though he didn't find more significant secrets, there were plenty of smaller ones.
Gossip like father-in-law harassing daughters-in-law, brother-in-law assaulting sisters-in-law were just appetizers.
If he hadn't rescued so many varied characters, how else would Xu Qing know the Prefect had unspeakable issues and the Baisha County Magistrate's daughter was a tofu sacred body, preferring to dress as a man and chat all night with the good girls at brothels?
We don't know how they chatted, Xu Qing found out from a helper from a brothel.
The helper saw something he shouldn't have and foolishly tried to blackmail the Magistrate's daughter for money, so he suffered the consequences.
How could he? The young lady was doing her thing and allowed him to watch for free, and he wasn't satisfied. He even tried to extort money? Not even a freeloader was as bold!
The reward from the helper was interesting too, a Hundred Beauties Spring Palace Painting.
And this painting wasn't static, as long as you focus, the generous and different beauties inside would become alluring and captivating.
But once you let desire take over, those beauties on the painting would transform into terrifying soul-seeking ghosts, pressing against the painting, as if trying to break free to harm you!
Seeing this, Xu Qing, unguarded, nearly threw the painting outside the walls.
This wasn't food for the soul but something terrifying. Luckily, his mental resilience was strong, otherwise, a timid man might end up joining Jinmen Prefecture's Prefect as a patient, never able to muster desire again.