"After all, it's just an abandoned child..."
Li Dong's expression froze when he heard this, and then returned to normal.
Seeing that Li Dong didn't answer, the eldest grandson continued: "If you climb the clan hierarchy, Mr. Li will surely prosper in the future."
Li Dong was completely stunned, and then said with a slightly horrified expression: "Wangcai, please don't talk nonsense. You will die if you climb up to the clan nobles or stand in the imperial court..."
Changsun looked at Li Dong's fake expression and thought that Li Dong's acting skills had improved a lot over the years.
"The missing persons case involves a huge number of missing persons. Even if it occurs in Kaicheng District, which is almost unsupervised, it is absolutely impossible to hide it. After so many years, does the court know nothing about it? How can Yuan Chengde, a small county magistrate, suppress this Come down?"
Li Dong didn't answer, but his expression gradually became colder.
"I was curious about this on the way here, so I deliberately asked Yuan Chengde to tell me something. However, the person behind Yuan Chengde should not be considered a secret in the court, so Yuan Chengde revealed the power behind him to me without any effort. …”
"It's the noble clan!"
But in fact, at that time, the eldest grandson was still not sure that Li Dong had an affair with the clan nobles. It was not until the final development of the matter that the eldest grandson confirmed his thoughts.
"Liu Xinyan sent you to inspect Kaicheng District, obviously for the 'missing persons case'. This is tantamount to sending a signal to the court..."
"Liu Xinyan is ready to attack the nobles of the clan!"
Today, the largest parties in the imperial court are undoubtedly the party led by Shangshu Ling Liu Xinyan and the party headed by Dali Temple Minister Zhou Mi.
The clan clan is the third largest party that exists to balance the two parties.
"Liu Xinyan openly declared war on the nobles of the clan. Naturally, they could not sit still and wait for death. The 'murder case of the players' was their response."
"Since Liu Xinyan plans to start a war, then no one should have it easy! At the beginning of the New Era Cup finals, a player was murdered, and it was eerily similar to the 'Tang Huaian case' that involved the bereaved family... If the court handles it improperly at this time, it would be equivalent to It has stabbed the sky in the imperial capital. The New Era Cup finals will be postponed, and the Tang Dynasty will become the laughing stock of the entire continent..."
This move by the nobles of the clan is equivalent to flipping the table, which harms both others and themselves.
However, the nobles of the clan are not fools, and of course there are benefits to doing so.
First of all, after disrupting the situation, the court's attention will naturally be diverted from the "missing person case" to the "murdered player case". This delay will be enough for them to find a countermeasure.
Secondly, as soon as this move came out, Dali Temple, another major party in the court, naturally could not deal with it calmly.
Zhou Mi's initial attitude was to remain neutral. Wouldn't it be nice to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight?
But the "murder case of a player" is equivalent to forcing Zhou Mi into the game...
Either you and Liu Xinyan will investigate me to the end, or you and I will suppress the two cases together. When the time comes, hello, me, everyone...
This was the choice given to Zhou Mi by the nobles of the clan.
In the eyes of the clan nobles, of course the second option is more beneficial to Zhou Mi.
After all, during this critical period, maintaining the stability of the imperial capital is more important than anything else.
"Your design tonight is indeed the most perfect ending, giving Zhou Mi and everyone a satisfactory explanation..."
After hearing this, Li Dong's expression softened.
"Yeah, it's not easy for Xinyan to break the current balance. It's a startling step, and if you make a slight mistake, you will be doomed..."
"Besides, even if Liu Xinyan succeeds and finally knocks down the nobles of the clan, what will happen next? This is the imperial court, and the person on the throne is... Will he watch Liu Xinyan get bigger and bigger? At that time, only Liu Xinyan and Zhou Mi were left in the court, so wouldn't they have to fight to the death?"
Li Dong's tone was sincere, but he still did not leave any loopholes for his eldest grandson. His words still hinted that he was Liu Xinyan's person, and did not mention that he was a member of the clan.
"As you said, I am not a person who makes big things happen. I don't want the three of us brothers to end up facing each other..."
After hearing this, the eldest grandson's expression softened slightly, but after a moment he still said: "But in this case, you still betrayed Liu Xinyan..."
Li Dong's expression froze.
"Perhaps Zhou Mi had to accept the ending you gave before, but my appearance was the turning point of the whole thing..."
Changsun seemed to be talking to himself. He now recalled Zhou Mi's excited expression when he saw him for the first time. There was indeed joy in meeting old friends, but now he thought about it, there should also be a hint of excitement in seeing the hope of breaking the situation...
Changsun's words seemed to arouse Li Dong's competitive spirit. Judging from tonight's strategy, Li Dong had a hint of challenge to Changsun, whether it was the posture of a high-ranking person before setting off, or the direct shouting after falling behind. The eldest grandson's randomness in "prospering wealth" is all a demonstration to the eldest grandson.
Li Dong was very curious about how much ability this imperial detective who was once known as "seeing the fire with a clear eye and knowing the smallest things" still has after so many years?
Changsun did not give an answer, but instead asked: "In your game, how did Lu Si become the murderer of the 'murder case of the players'?"
"The relationship between Lu Si and Chen Tian made him know the details of the 'Tang Huaian Case', which proved that Lu Si had the ability to commit crimes; because of his evil thoughts, you can say that he was a survivor, and it was his intention to kill the contestants of the New Era Cup. To disrupt the New Era Cup, this could be his motive..."
"But there is still one huge difference between the crime scene and the 'Tang Huaian case', that is, the 'murder case of the contestant' was committed in a secret room! The innkeeper and waiters can all prove that the contestant has always locked the door and stayed alone. How could Lu Si kill someone?" Then fled the scene?"
In the "Tang Huaian Case" back then, the maid Lingyue fled the scene after committing the crime, but in the "Contestant Murder Case", Zhang Sun and Wu Qing arrived at the scene immediately. The crime scene was a secret room, which Zhang Sun had personally investigated.
When Li Dong heard this, he looked at Changsun with a hint of disdain, clearly saying, "You are nothing more than that."
"Wangcai, you also experienced the battle just now. Haven't you got any hints from it?"
"Have you seen the 'shadow puppet show' that Boss Yu and the others used just now? Aren't you now an unknown talisman master? Then you have always heard of the 'shadow puppet show' talisman formation, right?"
"Shadow puppets cannot escape the fate of being manipulated..."
Changsun replied softly.
"Yes! It's control. You saw the runes on Lu Si's body. Isn't that also a 'shadow play'? That player controlled Lu Si but was killed, or Lu Si controlled the player to commit suicide... No matter what the situation is, in short This all explains how Lu Si killed people outside the secret room..."
Li Dong still forced an explanation to prove that Lu Si was the murderer.
Anyway, Lu Si is crazy and unable to defend himself, and the other player is dead. It doesn't matter what the truth is, just give a "reasonable" murderer.
"How do you know that the contestants can do shadow puppetry if you haven't been there?"
Changsun continued to ask questions.
Li Dong seemed too lazy to explain, and said casually: "We will know when the autopsy shows the runes on the players' bodies..."
"The body is now sealed in Dali Temple, and a thorough autopsy has not even been conducted. How can you be sure?"
Li Dong seemed to notice the flaws in his statement and stopped answering.
Changsun took out a booklet from his arms, and when he opened it, it recorded the talisman formations of the shadow puppet show.
"This is the crime scene and the evidence on the player's table is enough to prove that the player has practiced 'shadow puppetry'."
Li Dong's eyes lit up when he saw this, and he responded: "Look, what I said is right..."
But this was also a trap set by Changsun for him.
"The crime scene is now under control. I secretly brought this evidence out. Even Dali Temple doesn't know about it. How did you know about it in advance?"
Li Dong was stunned and hesitated: "How could I know in advance..."
"Then how did you know in advance that the contestants can perform 'shadow puppetry'? Even Dali Temple doesn't have this clue!"
Li Dong was startled, and then he realized that Changsun had set a trap for him from the beginning.
"Now you still don't admit that you are a noble member of the clan?"
Changsun asked rhetorically.
The reason why he made such a long detour was to prove that Li Dong was a noble member of the clan, thereby blocking all Li Dong's escape routes.
Li Dong no longer denied it and chose to remain silent.
On the contrary, Wu Qing, who had never spoken before, couldn't help but ask: "Then how do you prove that the murder of the player is related to the clan nobles?"
Wu Qing was very curious. The two entered the crime scene together before, and they stayed together almost all the time these days. Why did he find nothing, and why could the eldest grandson draw so many conclusions? Are these conclusions Zhangsun's unilateral speculation or the truth of the case?
Changsun glanced at Wu Qing and smiled, and then said strangely to the dark alley around him: "The 'murder case of the player' is so similar to the 'Tang Huaian case', so it is inevitable to suspect that the murderer is related to the case that year... …”
"So I asked Tang Yuyan to investigate whether any of the people related to the players were involved in the 'Tang Huaian case'..."
Wu Qing nodded after hearing this. This was a very simple idea for solving the case.
"Finally we identified a suspect, Prince Huai!"
"Prince Huai?"
It was Tang Huai'an's father, King Huai.
"The murdered player's name was Lu Tiancheng. He was a martial artist from a humble family. Being able to enter a grand event across the continent shows that he was very talented..."
"But, is talent enough?"
Changsun looked at Wu Qing, who was silent.
It is true that talent is crucial to a warrior, but the master's guidance and the sect's resources, which of these are not indispensable?
Changsun gave the answer.
"Lu Tiancheng has always been supported by Prince Huai."
This is the result of Tang Yuyan's investigation.
Chang Sun then analyzed: "No matter how talented Lu Tiancheng is, he has only reached the threshold of the finals. I guess he may want to go further and shine in the finals, so he adopted a radical approach..."
At this time, Wu Qing already understood what Changsun was going to say.
"shadow play……"
Wu Qing lowered his head and looked at the corpses of Boss Yu and others on the ground as well as the black ashes of the shadow puppets. The performance of these people tonight had proved to everyone what kind of qualitative leap the weird "shadow puppet show" could bring to warriors.
Even though this is a dangerous shortcut, how many people can resist such a quick way to gain power?
"I'm not sure yet about the specific principle of 'shadow play' helping warriors cultivate evil thoughts, but it can be concluded that Lu Tiancheng wants to use this method to stimulate his own strength to go further."
Wu Qing nodded, Chang Sun's analysis was reasonable.
"So, King Huai took advantage of this and arranged a 'shadow puppet' for Lu Tiancheng, and gave him the training method of 'shadow puppet'..."
The secret book in Changsun's hand is the key evidence.
"What Lu Tiancheng didn't expect was that King Huai had other plans. King Huai manipulated the 'shadow puppet', and then used the special fragrance effect produced by Wulan flowers and Dipterocarps to make Lu Tiancheng incapacitated, and finally controlled The 'shadow puppet' killed Lu Tiancheng."
At this moment, Wu Qing had no time to ask why the special incense effect produced by wulan and dipterocarp made Lu Tiancheng incapacitated. Instead, he asked about some loopholes in Changsun's analysis.
"You said before that Lu Tiancheng was always alone in the inn. How should the shadow puppets explain it? Also, Lu Tiancheng died with a knife across his throat. Do you mean that the shadow puppets killed him instead?"
Changsun did not answer, but a voice in the darkness gave a reply.
"Let me answer this question for you..."
In the darkness, a figure jumped from the roof, it was Tang Yuyan.
At the same time, Tang Yuyan was holding a living person tied up with five flowers.
"The shadow puppets given by King Huai to Lu Tiancheng... they are real shadow puppets. They are made of human skin and contain less evil thoughts. Although such shadow puppets have limited improvement in strength after being absorbed, they are also not easy to be detected, so it is not easy to detect. It will affect Lu Tiancheng’s participation in the finals..."
Tang Yuyan threw the person tied in her hands in front of everyone, and then continued: "But King Huai tampered with the shadow puppet. The real owner of the shadow puppet is actually this person. Lu Tiancheng should have been beaten by Wu Lanhua and Long just after he started practicing. Fascinated by Naoxiang, this man took the opportunity to control the shadow puppet and cut Lu Tiancheng's throat with a knife."
"What about...the shadow puppets? There are no traces of shadow puppets in the room..."
Wu Qing then asked.
Changsun took the words and asked, "Do you remember that there was a pool of black ash like this at the crime scene?"
Wu Qing's pupils shrank. He didn't pay attention at the time, but he remembered that there was indeed such a clue. Later, when Chen Tian arrived at the scene, he grabbed it and checked it.
By this time, the logic, clues, witnesses, and physical evidence of the case were almost complete.
Wu Qing looked at Changsun again with a slightly different look, but he still had a question.
"Why? Why does Prince Huai do this?"
Motive for murder!
Wu Qing didn't understand King Huai's motive for killing him. He was King Huai who was about to retire after success. Even if the nobles of the clan wanted to distract the court's attention through such a case, was it necessary to invite such a prince to take risks? In other words, why is King Huai willing to be this pawn?
The eldest grandson was not entirely clear about King Huai’s motive for the murder.
"What else is involved behind this? Maybe it will become clear when we find out everything..."
