Chapter 23

The housekeeper cupped his chin in deep thought, as if trying to process this new information. After a while, he turned away from Jerry; as if ignoring him. He returned to the center of the square on a high podium and shouted.

"The princess will arrive in half an incense's stick worth of time. I urge everyone not to move around and cease the chaos."

When everyone heard this, they seemed to suddenly pause and and line up wherever they were. Jerry also lined up near the podium and heard whispers growing loud behind him. Like others, he also looked at where everyone 's eyes were facing and saw a figure in the distance.

A girl walked infront of a group of soldiers, with hands behind her hand. She looked to be in early twenties. Behind her were guards holding a familiar satchel. The girl was had an elegant momentum belonging to nobles but she looked a bit restrained though. She had wooden hairpin in her tied up hair and looked flawless in terms of appearance and dressing. She soon reached the podium and before she spoke out. The housekeeper appeared beside her in a flash and spoke something in her. She suddenly seemed puzzled and turned to look at Jerry.

It was at this moment that Jerry felt a humongous pressure experienced only by prey before predator. The fear almost made him buckle on his knees. He knew she must have been a powerful cultivator just like everyone around himself since it was impossible for a modern person like him to be intimidated by someone 's prestige. The girl suddenly spoke out.

"I was going to question everyone about the incident last night but it seems someone came forth to confess. Everyone will stay in place until the questioning is completed. You, come here."

Jerry immediately came forward quickly since he was starting to get some weird stares from the audience. He reached the podium in the middle of the square but before he could continue, the guards immediately pointed their spears and spoke with a threatening tone.

"Don't come near the princess. Stay where you are and answer all questions quickly and honestly"

Yo what's with the third degree, he asked himself. He tried to observe the princess more out of curiosity but suddenly felt a huge pressure coming from the guards so he had no choice but to look away.

"Jerry huh, for a mortal you have created quite some chaos in the past few weeks. My father has hired all you mortals out of his kindness and you let this happen, never mind. I heard from housekeeper Feng that you know what happened last night.Retell me what happened."

Jerry then started to say everything verbatim as he had memorized, then the questioning started.

"What did you go out to buy at such a late night?"

"I had been given some money from my uncle's friend,Elder Shang. I went out at night since that's when I was done with my job and that's when I was greeted with the situation."

"Did you meet the thief after you came back or went out?"

"Before I went out "

"Can Ji Tiandi collaborate with you on that?"

"Yes I'm confident. I met him on the way towards the town. And that's when it happened."

The housekeeper suddenly walked towards Ji Tiandi and pinched a small paper. After that, he started to question him separately far away from the podium. After he was done, he returned to the podium and handed the paper to her. She suddenly smiled and kept it in her pocket and continued her questioning.

"What was in the satchel?"

"There were 3 jade bracelets and necklaces, three inferior nerve grade poison pills, four precious low quality immortal stones, and..."

Jerry suddenly felt the question was weird, but he started to list off what he can remember. After a while, the smile on the princess grew brighter .

"I just had my housekeeper keeper question Tiandi and he mentioned that there were only three inferior nerve grade poison pills. So where did that extra one come from?"

Suddenly Jerry felt a cold chill, he knew he made a mistake and counted how many pills he had in total, not the pills handed over to Tiandi. He knew he had fallen into a trap and what he had to think was think of a way to survive before the final decision is made.

"Maybe I counted wrong."

"No, counting wrong is saying there's only one pill instead of three. Therefore I think you're trying to fool this lady."

"No ma'am. I wouldn't dare do such a thing."

"Know what. I feel like checking your belongings now. Maybe you cooperated with the thief to rob the people under my father's roof. Do you know the punishment for that? Returning all the stolen goods and spending three months in the fire leviathan's prison. So tell me the truth, maybe I can spare you that fate."

"Please don't check my belongings, I didn't steal from anybody. I'm innocent."

"Ohh, if you're so innocent, why don't you let us check you. We have already check Tiandi's belongings and nothing suspicious was found except for the satchel you gave him."

"You can't search me because I have a secret that I can't let out "

The guard beside the princess finally couldn't take it anymore and shouted with anger.

"Quit playing games here, if you don't let us search your premises. You won't keep your job and and if we search ourselves and find anything suspicious, you're in big trouble young man."

Jerry then walked towards the princess in a few steps. Seeing this, the guard tried to attack Jerry but the princess raised her hand. Allowing Jerry to come closer. Seeing this, the guards made way and kept their ears shut while still looking vigilantly at Jerry.

Jerry walked close to the princess and stood there with a calm momentum that betrayed his previous fearful and anxious expression. Then he spoke out a few words only the princess could hear.

"Princess, I don't know your name like most people, could you do me a favor and tell me?"

The princess suddenly widened her eyes at this daring mortal that she can slap to dust. She didn't believe what she just heard. Jerry immediately spoke again.

"I'm joking, I'm joking princess, don't take it seriously. I will tell you why you can't search me. I found a fragment of the devil's key. You know, the key to the devil's treasure. It's weird why you guys would call it devil's key. How uncreative can you guys be?"

The princess immediately ignored the following words and concentrated on devil's key. How could this mortal know of such matters?

" where did you get it? "

"I found it in the satchel that the thief stole. He must have dropped it and he might come back for it. This is my evidence that I'm innocent"

"So the evidence is that the thief will come back for the devil 's key? Haha, interesting. Ok, I will let you go for the time being. I will let guards watch you and room every second.If your so called thief doesn't come back in the next four weeks, I will treat as you playing with this lady and you will spend 6 months in the fire leviathan's prison."

"Yes mlady. "

Jerry finally breathed in a sigh of relief and wondered how such nonsense was able to fool the princess. Going by her demeanor, it seems she's just a bored spoiled princess that was easy to fool since I appeared a bit interesting to her, finally everything is in place, these plans are really headache-inducing. These thoughts passed for an instant in Jerry's as he retreated from the podium to listen to the closing words of the princess and watch her go away with her entourage.

Everyone suddenly turned towards Jerry and saw him a new light. The most of them was Ji Tiandi and Shang Fei, they wondered how he was able to survive such a situation. Jerry then walked towards Tiandi and quietly said

"Don't forget your part of the deal."