Li Ming pulled off her invisibility spell and appeared in front of the two men.
Seeing a young girl appearing out of thin air, the two men were terrified to death.
Li Ming looked at their pale faces and laughed out loud. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you, at least not yet!"
The men became more terrified after listening her words.
"W.....Wh.....Who....Who are you? And.....Wh...What do you want?" Lian Hu finally found some guts as he asked.
"Aah! I'm so sorry. I didn't even introduced myself. So bad of me!" Li Ming lightly hit her forehead with her hand and looked like she was so disappointed with her bad etiquettes.
"Hello! I'm Li Ming. I will love to say that it's nice to meet you both but unfortunately I can't lie." Li Ming said in a very polite manner.
"You.....You...are Li Ming?" Han Zhe asked in a shocking voice.
"En!" Li Ming nodded her head and looked at the two men who were as terrified as they had seen a ghost.
"Miss Li, I don't know why we got to receive the pleasure of your visit?" Lian Hu collected himself from the initial shock and asked in a polite business like voice.
"Not bad! I'm impressed. You know how to be polite even if it's fake. Well, let's get to the point. I just want to know how the two of you exactly poisoned the fields and got away without getting caught for such a long time?" Li Ming asked with real curiosity.
For one second Han Zhe's expression again turned terrified but the next second everything was back to normal but it was not enough to fool Li Ming.
"Miss Li, we have no idea about what you are talking about." Lian Hu said in an indifferent voice.
It appeared Lian Hu was really good at pretending.
"Then let me elaborate. When I studied the samples of the soil from the fields, I found that it was poisoned but the most amazing thing about this case is that the poison is not harmful for anything or anyone else but it's only taking away all the spiritual energy from the soil in a very slow speed. Since the soil is loosing it's spiritual energy it's fertility is also decreasing."
"I'm really curious to know that from where did you find such a poison. Someone who can make such kind of poison is really talented. But I still can't think of any poison which would be powerful enough to work for nearly 6 years in such a large area. Therefore I think that the poison was added at least every year. But I'm sure you two will be able to answer all my questions."
Lian Hu and Han Zhe both were covered in cold sweat. But none of them uttered a single word as Li Ming continued.
"Although if we ponder on this case with some concentration, it's clear that you didn't want to harm the villagers. Your only ambition was to decrease the fertility of the soil so that the villagers will get less production. For a year or two it would not be too much of a problem but as this continued, the villagers started getting desperate. They had not enough money to buy seeds and in their desperation they found someone who was ready to help them with money and seeds. In return the villagers gave their entire production to you and their children are working in the iron mill of yours in free." Li Ming finally stopped and took a long breath.
Both the men were shocked. Even the villagers didn't know that their children were working in the iron mill. If this information got out, then both of them would be rotting in dungeon.
From the corner of her eyes, Li Ming saw Lian Hu taking out a dagger.
Just before he was going to stab her, Lian Hu fell on his knees and clutched his head.
His entire face was getting red and sweat was dripping down. Han Zhe ran towards him and started shaking him but didn't get a response.
Just as he was going to shout for help, Lian Hu's painful face started to relax as he took long breaths to calm himself.
After a few seconds, both of them looked at Li Ming with horror.
"Such a poor stunt. Do you really think that both of you can deal with me that easily. Tsk tsk! Sometimes I really pity foolish people like you. Now be good boys and tell me what I want to know." Li Ming had an evil look on her face which could terrified anyone.
Lian Hu had suffered such degree of pain in his head that he was terrified of making Li Ming angry. Therefore he decided to speak the truth.
But before he could open his mouth, Li Ming took out two little red pills and said, "This is Truth Seeking Pills. I want both of you to eat them before answering my question."
Both men were suspicious but the cold look in Li Ming's eyes was telling them that they didn't have any other option.
So they both took a pill and swallowed it down.
"Good, now you can start speaking." Li Ming created a chair and sat down on it facing the two kneeling men.
"Miss Li, you are right that we were taking advantage of the villagers for past 5 years but we had no idea that the fields were poisoned." Han Zhe said hurriedly.
Li Ming frowned. It's impossible for him to lie after eating the Truth Seeking Pill based on his current cultivation level.
Did that mean he was telling the truth!
"Do you mean that it was not the two of you who poisoned the fields?" Li Ming asked carefully.
"No, we didn't! We have no idea that the fields were poisoned until a few weeks before. And we only got to know this because of you." Lian Hu replied as he continued to kneel down.
"When did you find the iron mill?" Li Ming asked.
The men looked at each other as they hesitated.
"Don't test my patience!" Li Ming said in a cold and loud voice.
"Nearly 8 years ago! One day me and one of my cousin brother went into the mountains. That night there was going to be a strong storm. We had already went too deep into the mountains so it was hard to return before the start of the storm. So we decided to find a safe place to stay for the night. To take shelter from the storm we found a cave. But that night due to landslide the mouth of the cave got covered with rocks. Just the two of us were not enough to make a gap to get out of there. So we decided to find another way out. After roaming the cave for an entire day and night, we finally found a small gap big enough for us to get out. But we also found something else that day. When we got tired of searching for a way out we decided to rest for some time. The place where we took our rest was exactly the place where we found the iron. We're so happy because after such hardships we got a present. That iron could make us rich but my brother had another plans. He wanted to give that information to the Royal Family. But how could I let him destroy such a big chance. So,....I....I..." Lian Hu was unable to speak a single more word. He was already shaking very badly.
"So to keep the news secret you killed your cousin." Li Ming said with a smirk.