Immortal Volume 1 Chapter 30

Ink Brush, Ink Stick, Paper, and Ink Stone

Translated by Team DHH.
"We didn't. I was just speaking my mind at the time. We didn't steal the demonic wolf." Tianling-er angrily called out.
"You didn't? Then where's the demonic wolf? It has to be you. You killed it and put it into your storage bracelet." Tang Xiaoyou pointed at Tianling-er and shouted.
Zhong Shan raised his eyebrows when he heard Tang Xiaoyou. He immediately figured out what was happening. Tang was just accusing Tianling-er of setting the wolf free, yet it changed to killing the wolf the next moment? It looked like the disappearance of the wolf must have something to do with Tang Xiaoyou, it was not stolen by some outsider.
"I didn't, I didn't." Tianling-er was anxious. She took out her red silk as if she wanted to hit Tang Xiaoyou to force him to clear her name.
"Look, look. I'm just saying it and you're already taking out your magic item. Who else could it be if not you?" Tang Xiaoyou quickly yelled.
At first, Zhao Suoxiang didn't suspect Tianling-er; he more suspected the four people from the Bright Sword House. After all, during his time interacting with Zhong Shan, he felt that Zhong Shan couldn't be a thief. But when Tianling-er took out her red silk, he wasn't so sure any more. If it wasn't her, then why was she so anxious?
"Take it out. Give us back the body of the wolf. And my Kong Ling Gem. You, you two even played tricks and messed with the dice." Tang Xiaoyou angrily pointed at Tianling-er and Zhong Shan.
"I didn't. We didn't steal it. Zhong Shan, tell them!" Tianling-er immediately called out to Zhong Shan. Though she had her red silk out, she wasn't going to fight just because of an argument.
"I know who stole it." Zhong Shan suddenly spoke.
Everyone was shocked and turned to look at Zhong Shan. Zhao Suoxiang was surprised and Tianling-er couldn't believe it.
The four guys from Bright Sword House, except Zhong Di, didn't believe Zhong Shan. Only Zhong Di swallowed, there was fear in his eyes.
If Zhong Shan said he knew, then he knew for sure. It was the habit of Zhong Di to trust Zhong Shan's words, no, it was not just because of habit. It was because Zhong Shan knew for sure.
"You know? How can you know if it wasn't you who had stolen it? I'm certain the two of you stole it." Tang Xiaoyou sneered.
"Zhong Shan, do you really know?" Zhao Suoxiang asked.
"Of course. You will all find out in a little while." Zhong Shan said in a calm voice.
Everyone frowned when they saw Zhong Shan was so confident.
"Bring an ink brush, ink stick, paper, and an ink stone. I will let you all know who stole the wolf." Zhong Shan said.
"Those four items will find the thief?" Tang Xiaoyou scoffed.
"Bring those four items over with a long table." Zhao Suoxiang told one of his family servants.
"Yes, sir." That person immediately nodded.
In no time, there was a long desk set in front of Zhong Shan and those four writing tools were all placed on the desk.
Tianling-er blinked as she watched. At the Kaiyang School, her dad also had a study, only it was rarely used. She also knew what those writing tools were for, but, could they find the thief?
Tianlibng-er didn't believe it; all the other people didn't believe it. If these four writing tools could find the thief, there must be something fishy here.
Only Zhong Di had butterflies in his stomach as he saw Zhong Shan setting up everything. Since Zhong Di trusted Zhong Shan, it was a habit that he had developed in the past couple of decades.
In the eyes of Zhong Di, except for attaining immortality, there wasn't anything that Zhong Shan couldn't accomplish.
"I have to see how you can find the thief with all these things here." Tang Xiaoyou sneered.
Everyone was watching Zhong Shan, but he wasn't paying any attention to Tang's ridicule. Instead, he slowing started to rub the ink stick against the ink stone.
But, there was no water. Didn't you have to rub the ink stick with water on the ink stone to create ink?
Zhong Shan wasn't paying attention to everyone's skeptical gazes. He just kept rubbing without water. Gradually, the ink stick was turned into powder, a very fine powder. Zhong Shan also kept pressing on the powder for a while longer. Finally, he had turned half of the stick into finely grounded powder.
Very carefully, he poured the powder onto a piece of paper and divided the powder into two portions.
He chose one brush with softer hairs among all the brushes. Then he brought one portion of the powder to walk over to the glass cover.
Everyone watched Zhong Shan with doubt. Tang Xiaoyou watched with a smirk.
Zhong Shan used the brush to pick up some powder, then lightly brushed on the glass cover.
Everyone watched in surprise; Zhong Shan was brushing lightly all over the glass as if he didn't want to miss an centimeter.
In the beginning, everyone was merely curious. Yet, suddenly, Tianling-er saw a patch of black stuff.
The glass cover was clean and smooth like a piece of crystal. What was the patch of black stuff on it?
"What is this? A circle after a circle." Tianling-er looked in amazement as black circles appeared on top of the glass cover.
"That's fingerprints." Zhao Suoxiang immediately realized what it was and said in excitement.
Fingerprints. It was really fingerprints. On the surface of the glass, there were fingerprints.
Zhong Shan used all of the powder on the cover and all the fingerprints on the cover became visible.
"Let's find out who had touched the glass cover after the rain. Come everyone, touch the powder with your fingers, then press on the paper." Zhong Shan threw off the brush and said to everyone.
"How could it be? What's happened? Why are there fingerprints on it? You, it must be you who had just drawn on it." Tang Xiaoyou instantly said in surprise.
"Draw? Huh, you try to draw it. As long as your hands are not clean, your fingerprints will be left on whatever you have touched. It's just that we can't see them with our naked eyes. The black powder makes the fingerprints visible. The downpour last night must have erased all the fingerprints from before the rain. So after the rain, whoever touched the glass cover will leave fingerprints on it. Except Tang Si who had fed the wolf, whoever touched the cover is the thief. To exclude yourself from being a suspect, let's all make a handprint." Zhong Shan said.
"Zhong Shan, you are too clever." Tianling-er grabbed Zhong Shan's arm and excitedly said.
She had never touched the cover, so for sure there wouldn't be her fingerprints on it.
Zhong Shan first demonstrated what to do; he touched the black powder with all of his ten fingers, then pressed them down on the paper.
Tianling-er followed suit right away. Zhao Suoxiang also did it immediately.
Tang Xiaoyou obviously didn't believe it, totally didn't believe it. He thought Zhong Shan was only playing tricks to scare him into confessing. Last night, Tang Xiaoyou did it after he had bathed himself. He was very clean, his hands were also very clean. It couldn't possibly leave any mark on the cover.
Everyone had left their fingerprints on the piece paper.
Tianling-er quickly took up the paper to match the prints on the cover.
"I got it. I got it. It's Tang Xiaoyou. It's Tang Xiaoyou." Tianling-er excitedly shouted. She was so happy as if she had been the one to solve the case.
"Impossible. Impossible." Tang Xiaoyou said in disbelief.
Then, Tang Xiaoyou ran over to the glass cover. He couldn't believe what he had seen.
"That's impossible. You must've drawn it onto the glass. It must be." Tang Xiaoyou pointed to Zhong Shan and continued the same accusation.
"Uhn, there's only your fingerprints on it. How was he able to draw it? Come, search every room in here." Zhao Suoxiang pointed at his spear and angrily said.
"Impossible, impossible. I had washed my hands clean. They were clean." Tang Xiaoyou yelled.
Zhong Shan sneered watching the disbelieving Tang Xiaoyou. Washed clean? As if cleaning your hands would prevent your fingerprints from showing up.
"Stop." Liu Ming shouted.
"Continue." Zhao Suoxiang shouted back.
After all, half of the guards here were from the Zhao family. They certainly followed his order, rushing towards each of the rooms.
"Bastards." Liu Ming angrily scolded and turned around ready to go stop them.
"Hu," Zhao Suoxiang pointed his spear at Liu Ming.
"Liu xiong, so, it is really you guys who stole the wolf?" Zhao Suoxiang demanded.
"I found it. I found it." One of the guards ran out of one room with the demonic wolf in his arms.
"Liu Ming, I can't believe it's really you. Per our agreement, you won't have any share of this wolf." Zhao Suoxiang squinted his eyes, there was a flash of pity in his eyes.
"It's all because of you. Come, archers, kill them, kill them." Tang Xiaoyou shouted in a loud voice.
Many guards of the Tang family rushed over from the hallway in the distance after hearing Tang Xiaoyou shout.
Zhong Shan didn't argue with him. He raised his machete, Nightmare.
Mountain Splitter!
The machete chopped down with full force. Trying to frame us? There was nothing more to say, just kill them!
"Dang~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"
Tang Xiaoyou also reacted, his sword quickly poked at Zhong Shan. However, Zhong Shan was coming in full force with his machete, Tang Xiaoyou flew away backwards for two meters. His one foot landed on the ground and the tiles underneath were pulverized instantly.
"Third level of Xiantian? Hahaha." Tang Xiaoyou sinisterly stabbed his sword at Zhong Shan.
Liu Ming and Wang Gui also took out their swords at the same time.
Tianling-er saw Zhong Shan had started the fight and she also threw the red silk at Wang Gui.
"Bang~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~"
The red silk flew over with huge force. Wang Gui first didn't take Tianling-er seriously, when the red silk hit his sword, he then realized that he was in trouble. This girl's strength was at least at his equal. The force of the hit almost sent his sword flying out of his hand.
"Liu Ming, get lost." Zhao Suoxiang's spear angrily pointed at Liu Ming.
"Dang, dang, dang…………." Zhong Shan's machete met with Tang Xiaoyou's sword making a great racket. The two continued to fight. Tang Xiaoyou was at the fourth level of Xiantian while Zhong Shan was only at the third level. Yet, Zhong Shan's machete was very fierce. Though Zhong Shan was at the third level, his power had reached the fourth level. At this moment, Zhong Shan hadn't even used the Demonic Body Toning Method yet.