On the eighth day of July, early in the morning, at Mao hour.
Imperial City, Prince Lu’s Mansion.
Summer has entered. At Mao Shi, the sky has turned white, and the temperature has begun to rise rapidly.
The lights in Prince Lu's Mansion are brightly lit. In addition to the royal guards coming in and out, there are also a large number of officials from the Ministry of Justice working inside with frosty faces. You can even see the royal guards who usually don't look at people in the eyes. Really accept the cross-examination by the government officials one by one.
The owner of Prince Lu's Mansion died in the back garden of his house. This was like a bolt from the blue for everyone in Prince Lu's Mansion. Some cried, some were scared to death, and some were dumbfounded and couldn't believe it. For the people in the palace, the sky had fallen.
In fact, there has been a cloud in Prince Lu's mansion for a long time. King Qian was killed, and King Lu was suspected of being the murderer. Not only was he asked by the emperor to shut himself up and reflect on his past mistakes, but his original supporters were also dispersed. Even the servants in the palace did not dare to breathe, knowing that the prince was on the verge of becoming furious.
The personal guard who usually serves King Lu said: "The prince has been in a bad mood recently and likes to drink. He always drinks alone, sometimes in the study and sometimes in the pavilion in the back garden.
The moonlight was nice last night and there was a bit of cool breeze, so King Lu asked someone to prepare wine in the pavilion and sit alone. I was standing ten feet away from the prince, and no, I didn't notice anything unusual, until the prince's aura suddenly, suddenly disappeared..."
This personal bodyguard of King Lu is at the eighth level of the Yuan Dan Realm, which is almost as high as the "big test" allows. In addition, King Lu has been having bad luck recently, involving safety issues, so he has always followed King Lu. Very tight and never let down his guard. There was even not just one inner guard around King Lu, but a full eight, all of whom were masters of the Yuan Dan realm.
But even under such tight defense, King Lu still died, even under the eyes of many internal guards.
"Before you came, I was the only one who had been close to King Lu's body and the pavilion. I checked all the smells around King Lu at that time, and there was nothing suspicious, and nothing was found..."
King Lu's personal bodyguard looked ashen, and at the same time he was angry and full of murderous intent. He knew that he was finished this time. Even if he did not die, he would lose his position among the royal bodyguards. If this happened, he might have to go to the ancestral land as a Guarded. Thinking about the dark days ahead, my heart aches with anger.
The person responsible for recording the confession is Xue Gui, the head of the Major Cases Department.
The mask on Xue Gui's face often gave him a cold and stern impression. In fact, Xue Gui's heart was not at all peaceful at this time. He knew very well that one prince after another died, even in the "big exam", and it was not a good thing to take on such a case from any aspect.
But Xue Gui is only a fifth-rank official. How can he shirk the order personally given to him by Ma Xuanlin, the Minister of Punishment above him? Moreover, Ma Xuanlin had given him many hints before and after, and ten days ago he had been asked to temporarily take over as the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, so now he naturally had no way to shirk it.
But Xue Gui also felt guilty. He was worried that the prince who finally ascended the throne would not read the Ministry of Punishment's "good" wishes, and that would be disastrous.
He was unsettled and didn't have much clue when facing the case. But the clues collected so far already make Xue Gui feel familiar.
With the completion of the confession here, the conclusion reached by Wu Zuo also reached Xue Gui's hands.
No trauma, no signs of poisoning, and the cause of death is unknown... Isn't this exactly the same as when King Qian was killed before? Even the expression on the corpse's face showed no pain at all, just a sad look. It seemed that King Lu was still worrying about something before he died, and died on the spot the next moment.
Xue Gui nodded and waved the royal guard whose fate was unknown to go down and wait. However, he did not have the power to deal with these guards. He did not have the power to torture or imprison him. He only had limited power to ask them to cooperate with him in investigating the case. . However, the royal ancestral hall sent people over to cooperate, so Xue Gui didn't have to worry about anything happening to the internal guards in Prince Lu's Mansion.
Of course, it is also possible for internal guards to lie. Although the internal guards of the royal family are equivalent to the dead soldiers of the royal family, there are no absolutes in the world, and some things are difficult to say. It's just that it's not his turn to check whether the other party is lying. People from the royal family's ancestral hall are already doing it. However, Xue Gui also knew that this possibility was very low.
The autopsy of King Lu was almost the same as that of King Qian. But there is still a big difference in the places where the corpses are laid out. One was in the dungeon, and no one was around when he died; the other was in his back garden, and he died under the watchful eyes of his own guards.
Wu Zuo was not able to determine the cause of death, but Xue Gui had already concluded in his heart: King Lu's soul instantly disintegrated and died.
According to his previous experience in the King Qian case, Xue Gui mainly searched for scripts, books, and even anything with text at the scene he investigated, but he found little. Someone from Prince Lu’s palace even told him that Prince Lu had never liked reading, except when necessary. I don't usually touch books except for some paperwork. In the pavilion where King Lu's body was laid out, there was nothing else except tableware, bowls, chopsticks and wine utensils on the stone table, not to mention half a piece of paper.
How did King Nalu's soul get shattered into pieces?
This thought made Xue Gui's mind a mess. Because the causes of death of King Lu and King Qian looked exactly the same, but the methods of death were different. The "story book" that was beside King Qian's body could not be found at the scene, and King Lu even had no habit of reading at all.
Isn't it like King Shaqian slowly foreshadowing the final blow to kill? This time, the spell was used directly to crush King Lu's soul without telling the eight monks guarding the back realm of Yuan Dan?
In the end, Xue Gui could only keep these questions in his mind, and at the same time, he intensified his search of Prince Lu's residence, hoping to find some details that could support some useful deductions.
But when it was daylight and the sun was shining in the middle, there was no clue that made Xue Gui's eyes light up.
This...even if he was opposed to this case in his heart, being helpless again made Xue Gui very angry, because he knew very well that this case was actually more delayed than the previous case of Qian Wang, and it also made Xue Gui very angry. Can't afford it.
Just after noon, Ma Xuanlin came and ordered Xue Gui to go back and make a report on the case and submit it in writing. Xue Gui had no choice but to comply. At the same time, he ordered to start questioning all the servants in Prince Lu's house. If necessary, he could be tortured to extract confessions.
At the same time, a straightforward briefing on the situation was passed from the hands of the people from the royal ancestral hall who came to coordinate the investigation of the Ministry of Punishment, and arrived at the palace. Not long after, Pang Ban, the commander of the Xuanqing Guard, was recruited by the emperor. Go in.
In the evening of that day, a secret order was sent to the command office of the Black Flag Camp in Fengri City. The top-secret copper bars were signed for by Shen Hao in person, and a matching Qianli Note was also handed into his hands at the same time.
