Chapter 82 Shao Shu

Once, Yan Xianghua had hesitated over a business card.

Now, he sat across from a slip of paper with a phone number on it for a long time.

Too long. His assistant came into the office once and gently reminded him, “CEO Yan…”

Yan Xianghua raised his hand slightly behind him.

The assistant backed out. He could hear the assistant on the phone rescheduling his upcoming appointments.

Countless thoughts and possibilities churned in his mind.

The sun had dipped westward. Holding the same position for so long had made Yan Xianghua’s limbs numb.

He took a deep breath and stood up with a slightly awkward movement.

He walked over to his desk and sat down again.

He dialed the number he knew by heart.

He had no idea what kind of life this number might lead him into. But the promise of a safe, reliable, and permanent treatment method was too tempting.

Humans are always so insatiable.

When his daughter was bedridden, he had prayed to every god he could think of, not daring to ask for too much—just that she could live.

When she finally got better, able to attend school and live a normal life, he began to wish she could be free from the unknown drugs, and live like an ordinary person.

To live like an ordinary person—what a luxury that was.

The call was answered quickly.

“Hello, Baiyun Temple Free Clinic.”

“Baiyun Temple? You’re Baiyun Temple? The one on Jinyun Mountain?”

A young voice replied on the other end: “Yes, how can I help you?”

To think it was actually Baiyun Temple—he hadn’t even known such an extraordinary place existed in Shanyu City.

Yan Xianghua was disappointed.

He was furious. He felt deceived.

“Hello?”

Rationally, he knew it was probably useless, but he still didn’t hang up.

What if? What if it actually worked?

His voice remained calm. “A police officer named Qin referred me here for treatment. She said you’d receive me.”

“A police officer named Qin? Please hold on. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”

The call ended.

Yan Xianghua called his assistant in. “Find out more about this Baiyun Temple Free Clinic.”

“Of course, CEO Yan. The couple you asked me to follow up on—this was the place they ended up going to. I’ve compiled some information and will send it to you shortly.”

“They went to Baiyun Temple too?” Yan Xianghua shot to his feet.

The assistant wasn’t sure why his boss was so agitated, but he shared everything he knew.

“You asked me to keep an eye on them. They’re often spotted by netizens visiting different religious sites, so their movements aren’t hard to track. Not long ago, they went to Baiyun Temple and haven’t come down from the mountain since. I followed up. They’re now volunteering at the temple, and their child is receiving treatment at the Free Clinic.

“During the investigation, we also unexpectedly discovered another patient at the clinic.”

The assistant sent a photo from his tablet to Yan Xianghua’s phone.

It was a profile shot of a man wearing a mask. He was very thin.

Yan Xianghua didn’t see anything special.

But the assistant was clearly excited.

“CEO Yan, you might not recognize him. That man is Cheng Ling.”

Even though Yan Xianghua didn’t follow the entertainment industry, he knew who Cheng Ling was. He was extremely famous.

The man in the photo didn’t look like him.

The assistant continued, “Others might not recognize him, but I’m a fan. I could tell just from his cheekbones and eyes. I had no idea he was sick. His personal account still posts photos and videos. Fans just thought he got lazy after getting married, only indulging in food and fun…”

Obviously, his boss didn’t care about these fan details. The assistant refocused, a little worried, and continued, “We don’t know what illness he has, but he’s so thin he looks like a different person—it must be serious. Yet his visible recovery suggests the Baiyun Temple Free Clinic might be working. He’s now volunteering there too.”

Yan Xianghua reviewed the assistant’s compiled information on the Baiyun Temple Free Clinic. There were indeed many successful treatment cases.

But truthfully, none of them were extraordinary enough to be stunning.

Could they really cure that couple’s child?

Could they really cure Miaomiao?

The phone from Baiyun Temple called back.

This time, the voice was older.

“This old Daoist is Wuwang, the head of the clinic. You must be CEO Yan, correct?”

“Greetings, Daoist. Yes, that’s me.”

“I’ve understood your situation. Bring the child up the mountain and stay for now. As for when treatment starts, that depends on timing.”

Timing?

Whose timing? What kind of timing?

Yan Xianghua had questions, but didn’t ask much over the phone. He simply agreed as instructed.

—

After hanging up with Baiyun Temple, Qin Qing sighed.

The more she investigated, the more confusing it got.

She hadn’t found any answers, nor any stronger clues.

The sudden death case and the business card at Yan Xianghua’s place still couldn’t be definitively linked.

But at least Qin Qing had reached one conclusion—this probably wasn’t another System Panel at work.

The ability to silently place items without a trace didn’t align with the direction of System Panel upgrades. The System Panel was under the supervision of the Good and Evil Evaluation System, and she trusted its owner wouldn’t use it to harm people.

If it wasn’t the System Panel, then what?

She could only hope Lin Feng might uncover something about the Taiyi Ziwei Sect.

But the result was disappointing.

Once they started digging, they found the Taiyi Ziwei Sect was surprisingly popular. Many people knew about it. It didn’t take much effort to locate several of their bases.

Lin Feng busted several nests of fake Daoists.

Aside from cracking down on fake medicine, talismans, and sleazy scams under the pretense of “balancing yin and yang to cure illness,” they didn’t find any new clues.

Those caught still claimed Taiyi Ziwei Sect was a legitimate Taoist branch, that they were real Daoists, and shouldn’t be arrested.

Lin Feng was unmoved. He sneered, “Real Daoists without a Daoist Priest Certificate?”

“The certificate only proves loyalty to the government, not faith. Historically, many Daoists lived in seclusion without any formal ID.”

Lin Feng replied, “In seclusion at a luxury hotel in a prime shopping district? Get in there. Scamming young women into stripping—how dare you justify that?”

Qin Qing also met with several detained “Daoists” with clear violations.

They were all frauds.

Some weren’t even affiliated with the Taiyi Ziwei Sect—just small-time crooks trying to cash in on the scam. One guy, jealous of others’ success in swindling money and sex, tried to join, got rejected, and then formed his own group under the sect’s name.

Ridiculous.

If it was a real organization, there had to be a leader. After capturing several members at different levels, they finally revealed one clue:

There was indeed a superior behind them.

But they’d barely seen this person and didn’t know their real name.

Everyone simply called them Daoist Shao Shu.

“Officer, we really don’t have Daoist Shao Shu’s contact. He’s a true recluse, a master cultivator, doesn’t use any modern tech.”

“Daoist Shao Shu always contacts us first. We can’t reach him.”

“What for? To preach, of course. He teaches us the doctrine, instructs us to spread the path.”

“Why wouldn’t we want to? There are benefits. He pays us, and not a little—way more than a regular job. Always in cash. Who even uses cash these days? But getting that thick wad of bills each time feels so real.”

“That’s all we know. We’re just responsible for preaching and recruiting believers. Other stuff is handled below. I just collect the occasional tribute.”

“Secrecy? Daoist Shao Shu never said to keep it secret. How can you preach if you’re secretive? I actually asked him once—why are we spreading the doctrine? He said that once the teachings reach far and wide enough, we’ll save lives and accumulate virtue.”

“How? I don’t know. But Daoist Shao Shu said that if someone in suffering remembers the name of Taiyi Ziwei in their moment of despair, a divine miracle will descend.”

“I haven’t seen any miracles. No one in my region reported one either. Maybe they weren’t fated. But that’s not my concern. I just focus on spreading the teachings and bringing in more believers.”

“Officer, I’m a good person. I just found a part-time job, that’s all—I didn’t think too much about it. It’s so hard to find work nowadays. I’m just a worker beaten down by life. Officer, you have to believe me.”

“Appearance? Yes, I remember. I’ll describe it to you. I’ll cooperate, of course I will.”

They interrogated a lot of people.

Finally, they obtained a sketch of “Shao Shu.”

“Damn it, these bastards.” Lin Feng slammed a stack of drawings down on the table in frustration.

Qin Qing had a bad feeling. “What happened?”

Lin Feng was fuming, breathing like a bull.

“See for yourself.”

More than a dozen sketches—some drawn by the bureau’s forensic artists, others submitted from different district stations after arrests and interviews.

After looking through them, Qin Qing understood why Lin Feng was so angry.

These were all sketches of Daoist Shao Shu.

But none of the images resembled each other in any way.

Tall, short, fat, thin—there were men, women, young, old.

“This looks like a whole family joining forces,” Qin Qing remarked.

No one laughed at the dark joke.

Zhao Zhao, one of the technical leads present, added, “We now have facial simulation technology. Even if a witness isn’t trained and can’t provide an accurate description for a sketch, we can synthesize results from different depictions. Usually, with several outputs, the real target’s face is among them. This tech has a recall rate of 97%. But with these sketches, it just doesn’t work. The simulated faces come out distorted.”

Qin Qing: “So what’s the conclusion?”

Zhao Zhao replied confidently, “Technically speaking, these sketches have no measurable similarities. They’re a bunch of different people.”

Lin Feng tilted his head back to put in eye drops.

He’d been staying up too much—his eyes were bloodshot.

He rolled his eyes, letting the drops run down his cheeks. His whole face looked twisted.

He didn’t even notice.

He spoke with that contorted expression.

“Those lower-level leaders didn’t seem like they were lying. Aside from the mystical, benevolent descriptions of Daoist Shao Shu, their other statements lined up.”

Qin Qing: “So now your more likely conclusion is that ‘Shao Shu’ is just a shared honorary name used by the organization, and that under the surface, it’s actually a group of different people?”

“Heh.” Lin Feng gave a cold laugh. “That’s what I thought at first too.”

“And then?”

“Until I found this among the many sketches.”

Lin Feng wiped his face with his sleeve and signaled for Zhao Zhao to pull out two pairs of drawings—two images per group.

He pointed at the first pair.

“These two sketches came from two leaders who were consecutively responsible for the same area. According to how the organization is structured, they should’ve met the same Shao Shu.”

But the two sketches depicted completely different people.

Not even the same gender.

One wore a suit and tie, had a chubby belly, and a kindly face—like the Maitreya Buddha.

The other wore Daoist robes, held a horsetail whisk, and was a slender woman. According to the description, though older, her face barely had any wrinkles.

Then Lin Feng pointed to the second set.

Again, two different people.

Both young.

One wore white, warm and smiling.

The other wore black robes, cold and stern.

Lin Feng gestured between the two images. “These came from two different accounts. They were both present at the same meeting where Shao Shu appeared. Each one insisted that their version of Shao Shu was the real one, and that the other was just confused. During questioning, they argued heatedly in front of the officers, both desperate to prove their version was true.”

“Huh…”