[Translator/Editor: otwentyfirst]
[Host: justreads.net]
[Jan. 30, 2019]

Swindling fools for money was just a short-term solution for Jier. It was fine to do it occasionally, but it wasn’t a sustainable way to earn money; sooner or later the fools would catch on and he would be caught.

They unexpectedly ran into Xi and a few others at the guild.

“No way! Didn’t expect to see you here Xiao Wu,” exclaimed Xi. She was there with her team of five to pick up a mission as well.

“Oh, it’s that girl.” Yifu spoke from the entry way, disgust clearly evident in her voice. Her volume was loud enough to carry across the entire area. She wore a black magic robe and held a magic staff in her hand. She arrogantly looked at Feng Wu as though the other girl was an insignificant ant.

Feng Wu blinked. The girl speaking looked familiar…

“What a coincidence. We’re also here to register. How about we all form a party?” said Zi Cheng. The smile she gave after saying this was soft and tender, like a ray of warm sunshine. Everyone immediately liked her.

“No, we already have a full team,” Xi’s rejection was forthright. It didn’t matter to her if Hans or Pei thought otherwise. There was no way she was willing to get on the same team as Yifu. The girl was a walking catastrophe and dead weight to boot. Forgive Xi for her bluntness, but she wanted to keep living.

“Is that so? That’s too bad.” Anyone looking at Zi Cheng at that moment would have been charmed by her amethyst eyes and swayed by the disappointment in them, so much so they would have granted her any request.

It was a good thing few looked at her right then. Zi Cheng didn’t ask Feng Wu since putting her and Yifu together would only be asking for trouble.

Feng Wu and Jier were in a hurry and didn’t have time to pay attention to Zi Cheng. In fact, while everyone was chatting, they were busy registering.

Zi Cheng didn’t think too much about Feng Wu and wasn’t interested in causing any trouble.

Yifu hated Feng Wu’s guts and had other ideas. Now that the girl was in front of her, how could Yifu ignore her? Yifu chanted a malevolent spell and directed it at Feng Wu. It was too bad she forgot where she was in her eagerness to harm.

The Adventurers’ guild had an array that nullified low level spells precisely for events like these. It considerably decreased the display of bad behavior by budding magicians intoxicated by their newfound powers. Yifu’s spell sputtered out and a force pushed her out of the guild hall.

The other adventures turned at the movement and looked at her standing dumbstruck at the doorway. The expression everyone wore clearly said, “idiot.” To be so stupid as to attack someone inside the guild… they hadn’t seen such a rookie mistake like that in years.

Yifu stood outside the hall confused. How did she get pushed out here? She was clearly inside when she cast her spell.

One look at her and it was obvious she was a rookie. Two swordmasters took pity on her and explained the situation.

“The use of force is prohibited inside the guild. You’ll be ejected by the array if you try.”

Yifu finally understood. Her face turned black and blue from embarra.s.sment. Why was she always put in such awkward situations every time she ran into Feng Wu?

Feng Wu noticed the movement along with everyone else; but by the time she turned around, all she saw was a flash of light.

Jier snorted. If it weren’t for the array I would have already burned your ugly self to a crisp.

Jier and Feng Wu were free to choose their missions after registering, however they were restricted to “D” and “C” ranked ones. Higher missions were locked until they leveled up.

Jier knew better than to ask Feng Wu for her opinion on the missions. It would have been hopeful thinking to expect her to research any of it beforehand. With this in mind, he went ahead and just picked the “C” level mission with the highest reward.

The mission was to investigate the death of Mrs. Malin, and apprehend the murderer. It wouldn’t take too long and was worth 500 gold.

They weren’t the first to go for it; quite a few had tried before, but all resulted in failure. Charges weren’t filed against any of the suspects found since the evidence was lacking.

The deceased victim was survived by her husband, Mr. Wenda, and her daughter, Clara Wenda. Mr. Wenda was an incredibly handsome young man in his youth. He was also very shrewd in business. It was this combination that caught the attention of the then single Mrs. Malin. The two married and two years later gave birth to their only daughter, Clara , now eighteen years old. Clara wasn’t very good with business so she stayed with her mother at home and helped around the house. They had been a happy family of three, but three years ago everything changed.

Mr. Wenda met and fell head over heels for another woman. She was ravishingly beautiful and her name was Dusha. Deliriously in love, Wenda neglected his wife and stopped his conjugal visits to her entirely. He eventually dropped all pretense and demanded a divorce.

Mrs. Malin didn’t want to divorce so she refused. The two had terrible arguments over it. Things came to a head when Mrs. Malin discovered Mr. Wenda had cheated on her and slept with Dusha. She agreed to the divorce, but on her terms.

Since he cheated on her, she was ent.i.tled to two thirds of their a.s.sets upon separation. Although Mr. Wenda was extremely unwilling, he saw no other way around it.

The night before the divorce, Mrs. Malin and her daughter stayed at the villa she had inherited from her parents. The servants were all dismissed so it was just the two of them together.

Shockingly, Mrs. Malin was murdered sometime in the night. Clara had no evidence, but she suspected her father and his mistress were the ones who killed her mother.

The murder happened a few months ago in a city near Zhongyang. Investigators found the murder weapon in Clara ’s room, and in a dramatic turn of events, Clara became a suspect in her own mother’s murder. Her father even formally accused her.

She refused to plead guilty, instead asking a friend to issue a mission on her behalf at the Adventurers’ Guild. She wanted to find her mother’s real murderer and have that person brought to justice.

Jier looked at the mission sheet again. They just had to find the culprit; it was certainly doable.

It looked like a cut and dried case. The culprit was clearly Clara ’s father and his mistress Dusha. However, if it was that simple, why had no one already solved it? The mission couldn’t be as simple as it initially appeared. Jier enjoyed challenges and looked forward to solving the difficult case.

The clerk was surprised he’d taken the mission. “Are you sure you want to take that “C” mission?”

Jier impatiently gave his reply in a curt biting tone. “Yeah, this one.”

Many far more experienced adventurers had unsuccessfully tried the mission. The clerk wanted to warn them and suggest they take something else, especially since the trial was set to begin soon. Time was not on their side.