Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms Chapter 164: Longevity Ki

Xia Song quickly explained the background of that scholar.

He was from a school in the South Immortal Commandery.

The southern region regarded martial arts above academics, so only those who were highly talented and passionate about academics would be able to enter the school.

The Auspicious King was the honorary principal of the school, and he often visited the school with Xia Song to lecture the students. Over time, Xia Song became close with a student named Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan was from a humble background, but he had a dashing face and meticulous heart. Often, he only needed to read a passage once to grasp its key concepts and even formulate personal insights about it.

Due to that, the Auspicious King harbored high hopes for Zhao Yan. He intended to send the latter to the capital to participate in the imperial exams.

Unfortunately, that made the other students in the school jealous of Zhao Yan, and they began oppressing him. Zhao Yan turned a blind eye to their antics and focused on his own studies.

Occasionally, Xia Song would invite him on a boat trip on the Great Xia River to share poetry and exchange couplets.

One day, women started disappearing in the South Immortal Commander. Some were ladies from distinguished households, and some were young girls. This case quickly caught attention, and Jue Panshi personally led a team of chiliarchs to investigate the matter.

Days later, they dug up a few female corpses that hadn’t fully decomposed inside Zhao Yan’s tattered hut. They were the missing personnel! As a result, Zhao Yan was arrested under the suspicion of being the murderer.

No matter how the Valiant Defenders questioned him, Zhao Yan refused to confess to his crime, insisting that he was innocent.

Xia Song saw him once then; he had lost one of his eyes, and his body was covered with grievous wounds. He only had a breath left in him, but he still insisted that he was innocent and begged Xia Song to help him root out the real culprit.

“Imperial Duke Fang, the evidence was in place. I couldn’t exploit my power

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