Chapter 57

Jia Fu, unable to accuse his brother Jia Gui of arranging Jia Jin Sheng’s disappearance without proof, turns his interrogation on Fang Yuan instead, demanding proof that he was not present when Jia Jin Sheng went missing and threatening to name him the murderer if he cannot answer. The clan elders bristle at an outsider trying to pin the blame on their own clansman, and the Gu Yue clan leader’s expression turns sharp, until the academy elder steps forward as Fang Yuan’s witness, saying he had set men to track Fang Yuan’s daily movements ever since his sudden breakthrough to the middle stage and found no gap in which Fang Yuan could have harmed Jia Jin Sheng. ^{ch. 57}

Unsatisfied, Jia Fu has the elders allow a Footprint Gu, which bursts into a glowing powder that traces Fang Yuan’s last 30,000 footprints across the floor, showing a route running only between the family head’s pavilion, the academy hostel, the academy, and the village inn before the trail fades at the 30,000th step, clearing him of any suspicious path. ^{ch. 57}

Still pressing, Jia Fu produces a rank four Bamboo Gentleman, a Gu that feeds on honesty and detects lies, obtained years earlier from an unfinished gambling rock, and has Fang Yuan hold it in his aperture while he asks under its watch whether he harmed Jia Jin Sheng, whether he knows anything else about him, and whether he has said anything dishonest; Fang Yuan agrees without hesitation, quietly calling on the Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura to overpower the Bamboo Gentleman before answering, and after all three questions it shows no change in color. ^{ch. 57}

Gu Yue Bo pities the Bamboo Gentleman, whose strength is spent and which will die without honesty to feed on, while Jia Fu, his suspicion of Fang Yuan cleared, tells Gu Yue Bo he will hire the investigator Tie Xue Leng once he returns to his family to keep pursuing the matter, then leaves the pavilion, and Fang Yuan walks out afterward without incident. ^{ch. 57}