Chapter 40 The Real Murderer

During the hottest hours of the afternoon, most of the city's residents retreated to their homes to avoid the sun. The streets were deserted, making it the quietest time of the day.

The small door at the back of the palace opened silently, and a small bed covered with gauze was carefully carried out by four guards, who walked towards the shrine that was burned and blackened but still stood in the back street.

Monks were chanting sutras at the door of the mourning hall, imperial doctors were carrying medicine, maids were holding umbrellas to shade the beds from the sun... Everyone was very cautious, but tried to be as quiet as possible. It was obvious that the person on the bed was very important and should not be neglected.

But when they arrived at the door of the mausoleum, the imperial doctors and maids hesitated again.

After all, a major fire had occurred in the mausoleum, which had almost wiped out the entire Kucha royal family. Although it had been thoroughly cleaned up now, the blackened walls and burn marks on the ground still gave people a sense of eerie atmosphere, causing everyone to doubt whether they should really carry the princess into such a place.

The monk said, "Although it may appear strange on the surface, we have already cleaned this place thoroughly and performed many spells to exorcise the evil spirits and liberate the dead. It is now completely clean."

The imperial physician shook his head in objection: "Such an unclean place would frighten the princess again if she woke up. Perhaps summoning the spirit is inappropriate?"

The old maid said, "It is necessary to have such a scene. Otherwise, how can we return to the situation of that day and awaken the queen's will?"

The several factions were unable to reach a consensus and were busy discussing. The guards first carried the beds to the shade under the door of the mourning hall and waited for their discussion results.

At this moment, a sharp "woo" sound was heard, sliding across the street like a swimming fish, tearing the sultry silence of the afternoon.

The sound was not particularly loud, but when everyone heard it, they felt a stinging pain in their eardrums, a sudden buzzing in their heads, and their bodies became uncontrollable in dizziness, and they fell to the ground one after another.

Just as everyone fell down, a figure jumped out from the corner of the street and rushed towards the bed under the porch of the shrine.

Caught off guard, even the surrounding guards had not yet climbed up, the figure's dagger had already stabbed the bulge in the bed.

The dagger blade was dark and shimmering, evidently poisoned. Where the black light flashed, the dagger had already cut through the veil and pierced deeply into the body beneath the quilt.

The body below suddenly trembled, twitched a few times, and blood quickly dyed the bedding red.

Although everyone around was collapsed on the ground, they all cried out in surprise when they saw this situation.

After a successful strike, the killer was obviously confident in the poison on his dagger. He immediately withdrew and jumped down the stairs, about to disappear into the alley.

However, just as he landed on the ground, a feather arrow suddenly came, accompanied by a sharp wind, and pierced his shoulder blade.

The arrow was extremely powerful, and after it hit his body, it still had incredible force, causing him to dive forward four or five steps before he finally lost his balance and fell to the ground.

He reacted quickly, endured the pain and immediately got up, looking for a way to escape.

But fully armed soldiers rushed out of the alley in front of him, blocking his way forward and backward, and forcing him back to the front of the temple.

The person standing in front leading the soldiers was Qian Deng.

Her hands clasped on the bracelets on her wrists, she stared at the masked killer before her, her gaze pausing on the green belt around his waist. Then she slowly asked, "Master Xue, we can't contact the rebels, and the Western Region army is defeated and scattered. Are you finally going to show up in person to take action?"

When these words were spoken, not only the murderer, but also everyone else around was stunned.

Only Cui Fufeng, like Qian Deng, already knew the inside story. He raised his hand to signal the soldiers to seize the poisoned dagger in the opponent's hand first, so that he would not harm the county lord.

Li Yingshang, who was monitoring the overall situation from above, had already led his men to jump down from a high place, threw the bow and arrow in his hand to the guards behind him, strode to the assassin, raised his hand and pulled off his mask.

Even though he was injured and looked panicked and shocked at this moment, his slightly raised eyebrows still carried an indelible gentleness and charm. Who else could it be but Xue Xiyang?

"County Princess..." He looked at Qiandeng with a look of helplessness and confusion in his eyes. "So you're here. I was just about to get rid of this ominous princess from Kucha for you!"

Everyone knew that he was one of Qiandeng's candidates for fiancé. Hearing him say this, the surrounding Kucha people couldn't help but look at Qiandeng, inevitably with a look of surprise and suspicion.

"Clean it up for me?" Qian Deng wouldn't tolerate his false accusations. He asked, "The princess is my cousin. Moreover, I desperately need her to wake up so I can clear my name and find the real culprit. So what's Mr. Xue's intention in saying he did it for me?"

Now that his identity has been revealed, she naturally will no longer call him Xue Lecheng by his Tang Dynasty official title.

What Xue Xiyang said did not involve the two countries, but was just his own selfish motive.

"Because everyone in Qiuci knows that she is an ominous person, and since the county lord came here, she has been repeatedly framed and wronged, and was even nearly killed by Qiuci! It was not until she was injured and unconscious that the county lord's situation finally improved." Xue Xiyang's usual gentle and charming eyes were filled with both resentment and sincerity. "So, it's best if she doesn't wake up. Since the county lord can't do it, let me be the bad guy for her!"

Qian Deng couldn't help but laugh: "So, Master Xue did all this for this county lady?"

"I am completely devoted to the county lady, and heaven and earth can bear witness to that!"

"You're lying!" A weak but resolute voice came from behind him, interrupting him, "Sister County Master has always tried her best to help me and save me. She has never thought of hurting me!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw the guards carrying out another identical small bed from the mourning hall. A small figure was barely standing on it, staring at him intently.

It was Princess Bai Zhaosu.

She had just woken up from a coma and was unable to get out of bed. Her voice was unclear and incoherent, but her words showed her protection of Qian Deng and her identification of the real murderer, which was beyond doubt.

Xue Xiyang's eyes fell on her, then widened in disbelief, and turned to the blood-stained bed placed on the porch of the mourning hall.

Qiandeng smiled, walked to the bed and pulled back the quilt.

What appeared below was a goat with its mouth and hooves tied up. It was bleeding profusely after being stabbed by him and was already dead.

"When I sent Daimao to your courtyard to find Imperial Physician Chen, I also borrowed a live lamb from the palace kitchen." Qiandeng walked over to Bai Zhaosu, gently patting her back to calm her down. He then signaled the guards to carry the bloodied lamb and the bed away. "However, I never expected Master Xue to be so heartless, even poisoning the knife. Now we have no choice but to throw the lamb away."

"I never thought that the county lady would actually be so determined to deceive me." Xue Xiyang said with a wry smile, "It's a pity that my sincere efforts to help the county lady were wasted."

"In my opinion, you may not be truly sincere, but you can't escape the identity of the real murderer." Qian Deng said, motioning everyone to enter the spirit hall. "Now that the princess has awakened, please ask her to recall in detail what happened in the spirit hall that day and reveal to us everything the real murderer did!"

"That day, as usual, I knelt and sat at the outermost corner... near the entrance of the hall, listening to the Imperial Master's lecture..."

Bai Zhaosu was breathing weakly, but his mind was still clear. Although his narration was a little halting, he described the basic situation very seriously and in detail.

That day, the royal family gathered in the shrine to listen to the Imperial Master's lecture. Bai Zhaosu was still young and had no understanding of Buddhism. She had always been in poor health, and after kneeling for over half an hour, she felt a tightness in her chest. Seeing that no one in the hall paid any attention, she quietly moved back, leaning against the door. The breeze from outside made her breathing much easier.

When she came to her senses, she felt that the Imperial Master's voice was becoming softer and softer, and gradually became vague.

She was a little surprised and was looking up to see what was happening when she suddenly heard footsteps and screams from outside. Then, a guard fell in and lay in front of her by the door, covered in blood.

She was so frightened that she fell backward and collapsed on the ground. Before she could scream, a group of masked men rushed into the shrine with a flash of knives and hacked down a woman who was kneeling beside her - she was a relative she had met a few times and vaguely remembered calling her cousin.

My cousin's wife was fat and got stuck in the corner when she fell down, while she was thin and was blocked in the gap in the corner behind her.

The fire was on the high platform, and they couldn't find the corner of the temple. After the group rushed in, they just focused on killing and didn't notice that she was hiding under the corpse.

She curled up behind her cousin's body, feeling the warm blood flowing down her cheeks into her clothes, making her feel numb and itchy, and getting colder and colder, as if a terrible poisonous snake was crawling across her skin.

But she didn't dare cry, didn't dare move. She tried her best to shrink her body, not even trembling, and only vaguely saw the situation in the hall through her cousin's disheveled hair.

She saw those people cutting the bloody path as ruthlessly as cutting melons and vegetables. The royal family members who were already drowsy and limp had no power to resist and fell to the ground with screams.

She also saw Bai Zhaotong hurriedly crawling into the niche containing Buddhist scriptures, and holding the scattered scriptures in front of him to cover himself.

In the chaos, those people were clearly on the other side of the pillar and could not have seen his movements, but one of the murderers somehow tilted his head and pointed towards the niche. His accomplice rushed over and pierced the scripture with a knife, then ran towards the platform without looking back amidst the gushing blood.

There, the assassins forced my father and brothers to the top of the altar with knives, pushed down the sea tank lamp, and then retreated with laughter.

When they reached the door, Bai Zhaosu saw a sudden light in front of his eyes. They had thrown out the tinder, and the Persian carpet in the hall suddenly caught fire.

The fire spread rapidly from the door into the shrine. The platform was already covered with incense oil, which instantly turned into a raging sea of ​​fire.

She saw that everyone was on fire and rushed down the stairs where the smoke was billowing.

Amidst the fireworks, she seemed to hear a short cry from her brother Bai Zhaojue, but because of the dancing flames, she couldn't see the situation over there clearly.

Finally, a few people rushed out of the sea of ​​fire. They were my father and the imperial teacher. They were rescued by the guards and monks. They didn't even bother to put out the flames on their bodies and barely rushed out to the door of the hall.

Only after they were escorted out of the mausoleum did Bai Zhaosu come back to her senses from the extreme shock. Her desire to survive made her ignore her stiff hands and feet, and she pushed away the body of her cousin's wife who was pressing on her, trying to climb out of the sea of ​​fire.

But at this time, the hall was full of flames and thick smoke. She had already inhaled the smoke, and seeing her relatives die so tragically, her legs became weak and her whole body was completely out of control. She had no strength left.

"I tried my best to crawl out, but even with just a few steps, I couldn't reach the door... Just as the fire behind me was about to engulf me, someone suddenly rushed into the sea of ​​​​fire and picked me up... I saw her, it was the county lady's sister. She saved me, held me tightly and led me out of the mourning hall. I knew I was okay, and I felt relieved... Then I fainted in her arms, and I don't know what happened next..."