EFB Chapter 1609 Clues
Chapter 1609 Clues
Chapter 1609 Clues
The envoy of the Heavenly Palace bluntly said that Xue Zongwu had done all kinds of evil things. Liu Wu could only touch his nose awkwardly: "Yes, yes. This year is the 59th birthday of my king. During that time, officials from other places rushed back to the capital. Mangzhou was crowded with officials. It was very lively and caused a lot of trouble for the investigation."
"Have you identified a suspect?"
"We have arrested more than 300 people, and now there are still more than 20 people in prison." Liu Wu said with a bit of embarrassment, "We can't lock him down. The murderer who can kill General Xue in person is very strong. There is no such person among the suspects we have arrested."
"At that time, there were no powerful warriors or generals in Mangzhou?"
"Yes, yes. Luodian's Left Chieftain Qu Ruhai was in Mangzhou that night. But he forged an alibi, so Mangzhou had to let him go. Later, he went to Tianshui City, and we found out that there was a problem with his certificate. But later, new witnesses appeared, proving that he was in the west of the city that night, not in Xiaotao Villa." Liu Wu smiled bitterly, "He is Luodian's Left Chieftain. Without sufficient evidence, we have no way to detain him."
"Zuo Zongzhang of Luodian State, the Great Emperor Jiuyou?" Bai Ziqi laughed when he heard it.
King Yao probably had the same idea as him, so he let Qu Ruhai go in the end.
"The journey from the western border of Yao Country to Mangzhou is quite long. Why did the Great Emperor Jiuyou take action in Mangzhou?" Bai Ziqi pondered, "Before Mangzhou, did the murderer try to assassinate him? Did Xue Zongwu notice it?"
"General Xue's guard said no." Liu Wu told the truth, "But I suspect the murderer had planned to kill people on the road, but did not have the conditions to carry it out."
"How to say?"
"When entering the capital from the west to the east, most officials would take the Tao River. I asked General Xue's personal soldiers, and they said General Xue was indeed going to Tao River, but he changed his route temporarily and took a boat to Mangzhou."
Liu Wu became interested: "Why did you change the route?"
"Well, the Prime Minister of my court was reported by the Qingyang Regent. His family lives in Taoshui. The officials passing by wanted to avoid suspicion, so--"
So everyone can only choose to cross the Tao River without entering it.
"What about the topography of Taoshui?"
“There is a flourishing trade, rivers and lakes.”
"The well-developed trade means there is a large flow of people, and there are many outsiders, so the murderer could blend in with them. The presence of rivers and lakes makes it easy for him to escape after the assassination." Bai Ziqi nodded, "It is possible that the murderer originally chose Taoshui to commit the crime, but the plan changed at the last minute."
"General Xue's personal guards also mentioned that General Xue secretly changed boats before sailing, even hiding it from most of the guards. Only when the boat was in the river did they realize that General Xue was not on that boat."
"Well, it seems that Xue Zongwu has also noticed something is wrong." People like Xue Zongwu must be very suspicious.
"Before General Xue returned to his country, something happened in the tribute land he managed." Liu Wu said, "The account manager he sent to the tribute land was robbed and killed by two masked men in black who pretended to be the Nine Nether Emperor. The account books kept in the government were also pried away."
This chain is really long. "What kind of account book?"
"My king later sent someone to check. It was a tribute account book, which recorded the money from the past few years." Liu Wu coughed lightly. "At that time, the Qingyang Regent was reporting corruption, and General Xue was probably a little worried."
Bai Ziqi frowned: "If it was done by the murderer, there would be no need to alert the enemy before Xue Zongwu returned home. Well, who do you suspect did it?"
"This..." Liu Wu didn't dare to say anything. Who else? Everyone suspected that it was Qingyang Regent.
"You can talk about it. I want to hear your thoughts." Bai Ziqi said seriously, "Don't worry, I won't tell Liu Er."
He waved the others away.
But Liu Wu still looked embarrassed.
Seeing his expression, Bai Ziqi understood: "Qingyang Regent?"
Liu Wu hesitated: "I never said that."
Bai Ziqi smiled and said, "Okay."
Fortunately, everyone had already reached the first crime scene. Liu Wu quickly pointed forward to ease the awkward atmosphere: "This is the hall in the back mountain where General Xue and Emperor Jiuyou fought. It was very magnificent before it burned down. I have been here before."
"You said that the dragon head mark appeared here?"
"Yes. At that time, General Xue had already been killed, and Elder Qi had not yet gone after Emperor Jiuyou, when a dragon head pattern appeared on the bronze beast. Elder Qi was furious and broke the pattern, and as a result—" Liu Wu pointed at the ground under the two men's feet, "the dragon head pattern appeared on the ground, and it was ten times larger than before! I asked more than a dozen witnesses in the villa, and they all swore to heaven that this was true."
Bai Ziqi said: "This is the power of ghosts and gods."
Humans do not have this kind of power, especially since Emperor Jiuyou had already left.
"Many people in the community say that the Great Emperor Jiuyou is definitely not human, which is why we can't catch him."
Bai Ziqi laughed: "I only said that he can use the power of ghosts and gods, I didn't say that he is the ghost himself. How many people did the Nine Nether Emperor bring to kill Xue Zongwu?"
"Three."
"Only three?" To tackle a tough guy like Xue Zongwu, the Nine Nether Emperor only brought two people to the field? Bai Ziqi was slightly surprised, "How many people were there with Xue Zongwu at that time?"
"All the guards were left at the resting pavilion outside the manor. He only brought a dozen of his personal guards into the manor to meet his father-in-law. However, there were several explosions in the manor. Elder Qi Yunsheng went to appease the distinguished guests himself, and assigned dozens of manor guards to General Xue to chase the enemy. General Xue was supposed to go to the southwest gate to meet up with his hundreds of personal guards, but for some reason, he suddenly went north to chase the enemy."
He then described the battle as the witnesses had seen it.
Bai Ziqi frowned upon hearing this: "Emperor Jiuyou killed Xue Zongwu in front of hundreds of people?"
"Yes."
"This is a show! But it also shows that the cultivation and martial arts of the Nine Nether Emperor are far superior to Xue Zongwu." Bai Ziqi shook his head, "Then there is actually nothing to investigate in this battle. Since it is a careful layout by the opponent, it is difficult to find flaws."
"Yes." Liu Wu agreed. "On the fifth day after General Xue was murdered, I rushed over from the capital to investigate, but I couldn't find any useful clues here. The murderer cleaned up the scene very well."
Bai Ziqi pondered for a long time: "How did Qi Yunsheng die? You said before that after Xue Zongwu was killed, he was still here to cut the black dragon mark to vent his anger?"
"Yes."
"In other words, Emperor Jiuyou had already left by then."
"Yes. Taking advantage of the fire in the mountain palace, Emperor Jiuyou evacuated from the back mountain. The method is unknown."
Bai Ziqi immediately asked: "Where is Qi Yunsheng's body? Has it been well preserved?"
"Yes, his and General Xue's bodies were both suppressed by ice charms and sealed in the cold cellar of Xiaotao Villa. They haven't decayed. But it will take some time to open them."
"Then take me to see the place where Qi Yunsheng died."
"Yes, this way please." Liu Wu led the way while asking, "Master Dushi, do you think Elder Qi has more clues?"
"Xue Zongwu was the target of the Nine Nether Emperor, but Qi Yunsheng was not." Bai Ziqi said in a deep voice, "From the past deeds of the Nine Nether Emperor, he was very principled in choosing his targets. He would not choose anyone unless they were extremely evil. Qi Yunsheng did not meet this standard and was probably not on his assassination list at the beginning. It was only because Qi Yunsheng was chasing him relentlessly that he had to kill him to silence him."
Liu Wu agreed: "Yes. Elder Qi temporarily organized a group of people to chase him."
"That means Qi Yunsheng has a way to track down the Nine Nether Emperor." Bai Ziqi pointed out, "This kind of unplanned battle and killing is more likely to leave clues. Because the Nine Nether Emperor's evacuation is more urgent, there is less time to clean up the battlefield."
Liu Wu first took him to the top of the North Mountain to take a look at the environment: "At that time, Elder Qi had already led hundreds of people to the lakeside, and suddenly there was another explosion in Xiaotao Villa, so he turned around and rushed to the North Mountain, trying to take a shortcut back."
"The shortcut is to climb the mountain and cross the stream?"
Liu Wu pointed and said, "Yes, it is there if you climb up from the deep valley."
"Well, let's go down."
The grass and trees at the bottom of the cliff were thick and dense, and had long since covered up all traces of the battle. The crime scene was in a deep valley in the wilds, and more than two months had passed, so Bai Ziqi didn't think he could find any new clues.
As long as he walked around casually, his head would be covered with spider webs, as if he was wearing a gray wig, and his body and trouser legs would be covered with ghost needles and cockleburs, and it would take a quarter of an hour to clean them all.
"This is a really good terrain for an ambush. Qi Yunsheng was too arrogant at the time."
"Elder Qi has profound cultivation, and he brought dozens of General Xue's guards to the mountain. Perhaps he thought that even if he couldn't win, he could still escape." Liu Wu pointed to the cliff above, "This section of the journey is not long."
For a cultivator, this short distance can be reached in a short time. If he were Qi Yunsheng, he would not want to take an extra half hour to travel this long distance.
Bai Ziqi asked Liu Wu to point out the location of the bodies, but Liu Wu looked a little embarrassed. There were dozens of bodies, how could he remember their locations?
"In the directions of east, west, south, and north, do you remember where the farthest corpse was found?"
Liu Wu secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "Oh, I still remember it."
He found out the places where the bodies were buried the farthest away from each other, and Bai Ziqi asked people to mark them, release red smoke, and then climb to a high place to have a look.
Standing high and looking far away, red smoke was curling in the dark forest, and every place where the smoke rose was the location of a corpse.
"Qi Yunsheng died here in the end, right?"
"Yes." It was the huge rock under the feet of the two people.
"From here to the southernmost red smoke, the distance is more than 30 feet, and the distance to the western red smoke is the farthest, more than 100 feet. Moreover, here is halfway up the mountain, there is not even a road, and the terrain is rugged and undulating, which will definitely affect the walking speed." Bai Ziqi thought, "Qi Yunsheng and his men will scatter and flee if they can't win. If the Nine Nether Emperor only has three people, how can he catch up with them all and kill them one by one?"
Looking at the place where they were killed, they were scattered all over the place. Bai Ziqi could imagine how chaotic the scene was at that time.
However, no one was left alive.
Liu Wu said: "Many people died together. Perhaps the Great Emperor Jiuyou used some tricks to gather them together and kill them."
"cause of death?"
"They were either knives or gunshot wounds. Several of the dead had bruises on their bodies. It looked like they had been tied up and struggled hard."