murder
In Lirenfang, the people watched with trembling eyes as Fengmingwei walked to the scene of the incident.
The village head, with his hair and beard all white, was guarding the crime scene, with a coroner from the Ministry of Punishment standing beside him. Upon seeing the Fengming Guards, they immediately led the inmates to the body, and the coroner explained the situation.
"The deceased was found in the courtyard of this house at 3:00 AM today. The person who discovered him was a woman from this house. He had lost all his blood and appeared to be a dried corpse, making it impossible to identify him or her. There are no other traces here, so it is initially determined that this is not the original crime scene."
The woman who first discovered the deceased was still in shock and was brought to Xiao Wan'er with a pale face.
"My humble self greets you, sir." She spoke haltingly, her expression trembling with fear.
"Don't be afraid," Xiao Wan'er moved her fingers, and a breeze blew through the yard, soothing the woman. "Tell me more about how you found the deceased."
"Yes." The woman responded to Xiao Wan'er's order and recounted the story of how she found the deceased. Xiao Wan'er stared at her every facial expression, making sure she was not lying.
"Okay, there's nothing for you to do here, so leave."
The woman left as quickly as possible as if she had been pardoned.
"I am incompetent and have failed to find any useful clues. It is all up to you gentlemen of Fengmingwei to find the murderer." The coroner completed the handover task and said goodbye.
People who died tragically often harbor resentment, so Xiao Wan'er dispatched monks to appease the deceased souls before performing divination. A young monk from the team stepped forward and suddenly stopped midway through reciting a scripture.
"Captain, she...she no longer has a soul."
This remark caused Yuan Hui, who had been standing aside, twirling his Buddhist beads with his eyes closed, to open his eyes. Without waiting for Xiao Wan'er's order, he walked over to the deceased, stared at him for a few breaths, and came to the same conclusion.
"Captain, this man has indeed lost his soul."
Xiao Wan'er's expression turned pale. Losing her soul meant that divination became more difficult, and the information she could divine was greatly reduced.
In order not to disturb the residents, she first divined the crime scene and saw a dark shadow placing the mummified corpse with its head completely turned behind its back, and then placing it in the yard.
Seeing that no useful information could be obtained, she ordered the team members to carry the deceased into the Fengmingwei official office, and sent a team member to stay at the crime scene to monitor the surrounding situation.
In the Fengmingwei dungeon, Xiao Wan'er had already drawn the formation and placed the mummy in it.
"I never imagined that one day I would use this formation to interrogate an ordinary dead person."
As she laid out the divination sticks, she began to mutter, and the deceased's experiences unfolded before her. She read through them one by one, and finally, in the torrent of memory, she found the answer she sought.
"It's him!" Xiao Wan'er took out a pen and paper and drew the appearance of the murderer.
After sending a clerk to hand the portrait to Yuan Hui and asking him to temporarily manage the team on her behalf, she immediately sat down on the spot, cross-legged and meditated, and did not recover until dawn the next day.
She walked out of the dungeon and saw the team members who had been busy all night.
Yuan Hui hadn't slept all night. Upon seeing her, he immediately reported the current situation: "Captain, I've given the portrait of the perpetrator to the team members for circulation and have arranged for them to patrol the various districts of Shendu. No one committed a crime in Shendu last night, and the team members are now off duty and resting. The portrait has been circulated and submitted to the Sixing Temple."
"Don't be anxious. Haste makes mistakes easy. Judging from this man's modus operandi, this is definitely not his first time committing a crime. When the team members are back on duty, arrange for them to work in pairs, taking turns patrolling the various districts within the Divine Capital day and night. As for those outside the Divine Capital, I will report this case to the commander," Xiao Wan'er said to Yuan Hui. "You've worked hard all night, too. Go and rest up. I'll take care of the daytime operations."
Yuan Hui left as she was told. At the same time, Xiao Wan'er spread her consciousness, thinly covering all the districts in the capital, and then went to find Liuyun.
"Your humble servant greets the Commander." Fengming Guards don't address each other by their rank, so Xiao Wan'er addresses Liuyun as Commander. She reports the case to Liuyun in detail, then offers her own theory. "Your humble servant suspects this criminal isn't limited to Divine Capital City; we should also dispatch personnel outside of it."
"I understand. You continue to lead Team A to patrol the Divine Capital. Withdraw."
As soon as Xiao Wan'er left, he sent a clerk to call Pei Yingguan.
That evening, the entire Fengming Guard's Gengqi squad left the Divine Capital under twilight, bound for the various provinces of Great Zhou. Upon hearing of the Fengming Guard's arrival, most provincial governors were on high alert, fearing they had committed a crime that had attracted the Empress's envoys. They only relaxed when they learned the Fengming Guard were investigating missing persons and homicide cases. Some, however, attempted to conceal their guilt or even murder to silence them. The Fengming Guards, however, investigated the case files while simultaneously apprehending the governors and reporting them to the Empress.
"Sister, you've caused quite a stir this time," Shangguan Wan'er said, inviting Xiao Wan'er to a restaurant in West Market for dinner. While they waited for their food, she hinted, "Fengming Guards have arrested many criminal officials since entering various provinces. They've even brought down two provincial governors."
Xiao Wan'er looked at Shangguan Wan'er and understood.
"But His Majesty asked my sister to come here?"
Seeing Shangguan Wan'er's wandering eyes, she understood.
"The perpetrator of this case is an evil cultivator who has at least entered the Dao realm. He is good at anti-divination, anti-investigation and anti-tracking. Judging from his modus operandi, he should have committed crimes many times. However, this type of case has never been reported in the Divine Capital before this generation, so I guess he must have committed crimes in other places before, so I reported it to the commander, and the commander sent the Gengqi team to various places to investigate similar cases." Investigating past cases may naturally reveal some corrupt officials in the past. As for the two arrested governors, of course they had something to hide and wanted to strike first, but ended up getting themselves into trouble.
"An evil cultivator who has entered the Dao realm... doesn't that mean he is at the level of the captain of the Fengming Guard?" Shangguan Wan'er focused more on the strength of the attacker.
Xiao Wan'er nodded, "Yes, and he should be stronger than at least half of the Fengming Guard captains."
Shangguan Wan'er could no longer sit still. "Thank you for telling me, sister. I will return to the palace to report to His Majesty."
She didn't stay any longer, paid for the meal, and hurried back to Taichu Palace as quickly as possible. That night, Fengming Guard Commander Liuyun was summoned into the palace by the Empress.
There was one person in Shendu City who was completely restless. He was now regretting not leaving Shendu City on the day the woman from Lirenfang reported the case.
The consequence of not leaving the city immediately was that his portraits were now plastered all over the Divine Capital, and monks were patrolling in shifts in every district. Even if he couldn't kill the lesser monks who hadn't reached the Daoist Entry Realm, killing one would attract many more, and he wouldn't be able to escape.
It's not that he hadn't thought about using magic to disguise himself and sneak out of the Divine Capital City, but starting from the second day after reporting the case, a powerful divine sense had been keeping an eye on every gate of the Divine Capital City. As long as he dared to pass through in disguise, he would definitely be discovered.
He regretted entering the Divine Capital City until his eyes turned blood red. He tried his best to suppress himself, but gradually lost consciousness.
In his last conscious moment, he thought that he shouldn't have thrown the body into the capital when he lost his mind.
That night, a signal from Team A1 came from Princess Taiping's Mansion. When Xiao Wan'er rushed there, she only saw the frightened people in the Princess' Mansion, two injured Team A1 members, and the bodies of several servants in the Princess' Mansion.
"Captain, the thug who drained human blood attempted to assassinate His Highness Taiping. Our subordinates immediately sent a message and stopped him. However, he was too powerful, and casualties still occurred in the Princess's residence. Fortunately, the Princess, her husband, and several other young masters are all safe."
"I understand. You should go back and heal your wounds," Xiao Wan'er said, letting the two team members leave. She then turned to Princess Taiping and said, "The dead and traces of battle are all here. We can use divination to learn more about the culprit. I need to maintain the scene as it is for divination. I hope the princess will forgive me."
"Okay, I'll tell them not to touch this place for now." Princess Taiping agreed without thinking. Xiao Wan'er went home as quickly as possible to get the tools, and then came back to do divination.
As the tortoise shell fluttered, she saw more this time.
"His eyes are bloodshot, he has lost his mind, he is ruthless and not afraid of getting hurt, but he lacks strategy..." Xiao Wan'er gradually understood what was going on and was just waiting to go home and read the book after the divination was over.
"Okay, Your Highness can send someone to clean this place."
"Thank you, Immortal." Princess Taiping looked very bad after such a thing happened late at night. She looked tired and did not keep Xiao Wan'er any longer, but let her go home directly.
Upon returning home, Xiao Wan'er headed straight for the library, found the "Compendium of Forbidden Techniques" hidden in a corner, and headed straight to the target page. After comparing the contents with the book, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s indeed it…”
"Commander, when His Majesty seized power, were there any cultivators who stood on Li Tang's side and were killed?" As soon as she started her shift the next day, Xiao Wan'er found Liuyun who had been working overtime in Taichu Palace all night.
"Yes, this Taoist priest is also in the transcendental realm and is a descendant of the Li Tang royal family. What's wrong?" Liuyun was very surprised. Xiao Wan'er was obviously investigating a case recently, so why did she suddenly ask this?
"I suspect that the perpetrator of the blood-drawing and corpse-mummy case used the forbidden soul-fusion technique, and it is still in the fusion stage." Xiao Wan'er wrote down all the events and discoveries of last night on a piece of paper and handed it to Liuyun.
Poor Liuyun had been guarding the Queen's bedroom all night without sleep. He wanted to take a short rest after his shift, but was hit by such a sledgehammer by his own apprentice.
"These situations are indeed very similar to the forbidden soul fusion technique, but for the fusion to succeed, the fusionist and the fused soul must share a similar hatred. The higher the degree of similarity, the deeper the fusion, and the greater the power that can be exerted. If it is truly a forbidden soul fusion technique, the Li family Taoist priest is in the Transcendent Realm, and the perpetrator has already reached the Entry-level Dao Realm before the fusion is complete. How similar must the hatred between these two people be?" Liuyun said solemnly. "And if it is truly a forbidden soul fusion technique, then the perpetrator's ultimate goal..."
Liuyun and Xiao Wan'er looked at each other and saw the solemnity in each other's eyes.
"Yes, Your Majesty." The two of them concluded in unison.
This conclusion was so shocking that they dared not tell anyone else even if it was completely true.
"Let's wait for news from Pei Yingguan and the others. They've been out for so long, they should have identified the victims."
"Alright," Xiao Wan'er agreed. "Commander, you should guard Taichu Palace first. To be on the safe side, it's better to hold it until the perpetrator is apprehended. I will also keep an eye on every corner of Divine Capital City."
"Okay." Liuyun agreed and sent Team C3 to assist Team A1 in patrolling.
While Fengmingwei was on guard, Team Gengqi finally brought all the information.
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