Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?-Chapter 40 - Wuzuos Other Identity_1
Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Wuzuo’s Other Identity_1
Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Wuzuo’s Other Identity_1
“In my opinion, he died from snake venom, most likely that of a highly venomous sea snake.”
Confidently, Li Xuan held Liu Sanjie’s gaze, “The muscles all over his body are loose, his tendon reflex is weak. This shouldn’t be the case for a spell cultivator of the fourth house level—”
Considering the term ‘tendon reflex’ did not exist in this era, he deliberately tapped the dead man’s knee, noting the lack of any significant upward movement of the leg.
In fact, once a person has been dead for a certain length of time, the knee-jerk reflex will not occur.
But Li Xuan understood that he was in an extraordinary world, where cultivators possessed superhuman abilities, requiring practitioners above the Four-story Realm to be regarded as extraordinary beings. Therefore, their autopsies could not be conducted in a usual way.
Li Xuan subsequently directed attention to the exposed heart area of the deceased.
“His body exhibits severe cyanosis in all parts, a characteristic of asphyxiation. Also, here, the striations in the heart muscle are blurred with signs of dissolution, and there’s a brownish-red bloody urine in his bladder. Based on these findings, I believe a potent sea snake venom caused his death.”
The deceased also showed symptoms of acute uremia and hyperkalemia, although these were relatively mild.
Sea snake venom is usually a mixture of neurotoxins and muscle toxins. The spells Liu Sanjie had previously cast were meant to verify this.
In this era, corpse examiners adhered to empirical science, with limited written documentation and a lack of terminologies such as neurotoxin or muscle toxin.
Like the ‘Poison Testing Spell’ Liu Sanjie had just cast, spiritual handlers determine the cause of death by the blood’s color under the spell.
It required a certain level of experience since the color indicated by the blood varied depending on the time of death. In any case, the color of the blood was not very clear, and only an experienced spiritual handler could make these judgments.
“The venom came from the needle hole in his arm. It was likely a very fine needle. There’s no redness or bleeding at the site, indicating that the pain was minimal. Combined with the use of an anesthetic, the deceased may not have felt anything throughout.”
At this point, Li Xuan pushed aside the deceased’s sleeve, everyone looked closely and sure enough, there was a small, barely noticeable needle hole in the upper arm.
“This is my shallow analysis. If there’s anything wrong, I hope my teacher will kindly correct me.”
“Correct what? It indeed was caused by sea snake venom.” In Liu Sanjie’s eyes, there was a hint of surprise and delight as he looked at Li Xuan. “Then do you know the specific kind of sea snake venom involved?”
At this question, Li Xuan was stumped. To his knowledge, the venom of sea snakes like the banded sea krait or the beaked sea snake would not be this potent.
According to the information he obtained from Jiang Hanyun, the deceased had been fine in the prison. It wasn’t until people from Huoya City had come to the Jiangning County Yamen to take him into custody that he began to show symptoms of asphyxiation.
From the onset to his death, it all happened within less than a moment’s time.
Li Xuan figured the poison was likely a unique product of this world, but the problem was that he wasn’t familiar with it.
There was a rich variety of life in this world. The original owner of his body knew of over a dozen types of sea snakes, and Li Xuan was sure there were many more he didn’t know about. How was he supposed to know which sea snake the venom came from?
After a moment of thought, he gave an awkward smile: “This disciple doesn’t know.”
Liu Sanjie snorted in response: “As expected, you are still ignorant! I’ve told you before, if you want to perfect the art of corpse examination, you must read and observe a lot to widen your knowledge. How many books from the list I assigned have you read?”
Not a single one—
Li Xuan told himself this wasn’t his fault, it was the laziness of the previous owner of his body. He had wanted to study hard to enrich his knowledge since coming to this world, but there simply wasn’t any time.
Especially after the incident at Lanyue House, a series of troubles had arrived one after another, leaving him no time to focus on anything else.
Liu Sanjie was not truly angry. When he turned to face Jiang Hanyun and Lei Yun, his expression contained a trace of satisfaction and joy. “It’s basically as my disciple said. The man was pricked by a needle in his arm and died from the venom of a Red-cloud Snake. This snake is extremely poisonous; a drop of its venom can swiftly kill thousands of people. The victim was quite healthy and managed to resist for some time, but unfortunately, his cultivation was sealed, and he finally perished within half an incense stick’s time.”
Upon hearing his autopsy results, Jiang Hanyun, Lei Yun, and the others left the mortuary without delay. Before leaving, Lei Yun gave Li Xuan a deep glance, then chuckled, “You do have some talent after all. You’re not as useless as the rumors suggest, no wonder she keeps you around.”
Jiang Hanyun was annoyed at him for calling her by her full name, Jiang Chungong. After giving him a resentful look, she ignored him.
Li Xuan was also ready to follow them out, but Liu Sanjie called him back and threw a dictionary-thick notebook his way. “On this notebook, you’ll find the distillation of my twenty years as a Lingwu. Study it carefully. I expect it returned in a month.”
Li Xuan looked at Liu Sanjie surprisedly, feeling as if he didn’t recognize the man before him.
The memories of his previous life held a positive impression of Liu Sanjie, although it was established on the fact that for seven out of ten days, Li Xuan was out gallivanting, yet even when he regularly skipped classes and duties, Liu Sanjie turned a blind eye.
Yet, for Li Xuan himself, he couldn’t say that this man had a poor character, nor was it particularly good.
Based on what he knew, Liu Dachu had, until now, used his connections to help numerous delinquents enter the Liudao Division. Those students he mentored were universally recognized as waste; not one of them was competent.
So, Liu Sanjie undeniably deserved the blame for misleading the students. Moreover, as a respected Lingwu in the Liudao Division, his inability to select and nurture capable individuals hardly counted as “doing his duty.”
“I’ve seen your previous two autopsy records, and you’ve apparently learned something promising.”
Liu Sanjie probably interpreted Li Xuan’s gaze. He stroked his long beard and clicked his tongue: “I’ve taken on many disciples, but only a few have truly mastered my skills. The majority use the Lingwu profession as a stepping stone to idly spend their days in the Liudao Division. I don’t care whether they put their hearts into learning or not. But, from what I’ve heard about you recently, you don’t seem like the lazy sort. Given that, I can’t allow you to tarnish my reputation.”
“Thank you, master,” Li Xuan replied with a bright smile. Gratitude showed on his face as he tucked the notebook into his robe. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to memorize it all in a month. May I make a copy?”
“Go ahead and make a copy!”
Liu Sanjie waved indifferently “Just be sure not to damage my notes. It’s all the product of my hard work.”
Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.
He has two daughters, and he couldn’t pass down his skills to them. It’s not like he could force them to be morticians.
※※※※
After bidding farewell to Liu Sanjie, Li Xuan went on to the front hall of Jiangning County Yamen.
At this time, all the suspicious characters, including Liu Dianshi and Wuzuo Zhang, were detained here. Just including the Yamen servants, there were as many as a dozen people, two of whom were even members of the Liudao Division, dressed in ‘fumo armor’.
Surprised, Li Xuan wondered if so many people had contact with the spell cultivator before his death.
The person speaking in the hall was Liu Dianshi, who was under interrogation by Lei Yun and Jiang Hanyun. He wore a contemplative expression: “At that time, two constables from the Liudao Division came to the Yamen to interrogate the nameless spell cultivator late at night. As the issue was of great importance, I personally led six constables to the prison to escort the criminal to the interrogation room. Several prisoners were unhappy with their meals and reached through the iron bars to grab our clothes. Because the corridor was cramped, they may have come into contact with the prisoner. Then there were the four prison guards on duty who also became suspects; they are here with us.”
“After that, we arrived at the interrogation room, where a total of fifteen people, including the two from Liudao Division, were present. This included ten helpers from the Yamen and Wuzuo Zhang.”
“A mortician?” Jiang Hanyun frowned and looked at the young man kneeling below: “You called a Lingwu to interrogate a suspect?”
Liu Dianshi hastened to explain: “Considering we might have to use torture, we deliberately called for Wuzuo Zhang.”
Ma Chenggong whispered into Jiang Hanyun’s ear, “Your Honor, morticians who work in the Yamen are generally very skilled in torture.”
“But we had barely tied the suspect to the rack when he began to have difficulty breathing and his face turned blue,” Liu Dianshi continued with a bitter smile: “We did our best to save him, feeding him several Detoxification Pills and calling a doctor. But within moments, he had stopped breathing.”
Listening to this, Li Xuan was baffled. So, although it was late at night and there was very little time between the crime and its discovery, there were more than sixty suspects in the murder. How were they supposed to investigate this silencing attempt?
