Chapter 274: Coroner

Tian Wujing had waited for the State Preceptor to come down the mountain.

Once Xue Yi did, Tian Wujing rose and left the Marquis’s residence.

He took no soldiers with him.

Near Litian City, whether he brought troops or not made little difference.

There were many people in this world capable of assassinating Dujuan.

But people capable of assassinating Tian Wujing were vanishingly rare.

Perhaps, at this moment, Tian Wujing was even hoping someone would dare step forward and try.

What surprised Zheng Fan was that Tian Wujing had left him no additional instructions.

He had told Zheng Fan only one thing:

Find his child.

Never mind whether the child was still alive. Even if the child was alive, if Tian Wujing wanted Zheng Fan to search for it, shouldn’t he at least have left him something to work with?

Back then, the Emperor of Yan had at least given Zheng Fan a token and told him to visit the Third Prince at the lakeside pavilion whenever he had time.

Zheng Fan was not expecting Tian Wujing to hand him the Jingnan Army’s command tally outright.

But at the very least, he should have been given some authority to mobilize troops.

This was Litian City, not Shengle City.

The entire affair had, by now, taken on an increasingly bewildering air.

Everyone had their own way of handling matters.

And those differences were not limited merely to the practical methods they used.

Take a commoner in later generations trying to obtain an official certificate. He might have to run between several government offices, being passed back and forth from one department to another.

A leader who wanted the same thing done might settle it with a single phone call.

Tian Wujing had spent an entire night sitting on that threshold.

It looked as though he had done nothing.

In reality, he had simply been waiting waiting for certain parties to give him an answer.

Even so, the doubts in Zheng Fan’s mind had not disappeared.

City Defender Zheng was a pragmatist.

Perhaps because of the work he had done in his previous life, his thoughts often moved from a single point, to a line, and then outward to the whole picture.

If he truly wanted to investigate this matter, then he had to begin at the beginning.

Almost instinctively, Zheng Fan looked around.

A thought surfaced in his mind.

First, investigate this Marquis’s residence.

But Tian Wujing had not done that.

The armored soldiers who should have protected Dujuan had been kneeling in rows in the front courtyard.

The two Chief Commanders responsible for the security of Litian City and its surroundings had been kneeling in the covered corridor.

The army should have been the power Tian Wujing trusted most.

Yet the people who should have been doing the investigating had not actually been doing anything.

Surely Tian Wujing had not ordered the Secret Intelligence Department to investigate the matter in secret?

After something like this, could the Secret Intelligence Department still be trusted?

Was Tian Wujing deliberately avoiding something?

Zheng Fan did not know.

Nor did he know where to begin if he wanted to find out.

Just then, the Lieutenant Commander who had earlier exchanged that meaningful look with Zheng Fan at the gate came over to the covered corridor and called out, “Lord Zheng, someone from your side has arrived.”

Someone from my side?

Judging by the timing, the Blind Man could not possibly have arrived this quickly.

Zheng Fan crossed the covered corridor.

Only then did he notice that the two Chief Commanders who had been kneeling there earlier, Chen Yang and Luo Ling, were gone.

The rows of armored soldiers kneeling in the courtyard to confess their failure were gone as well.

Tian Wujing must have issued orders before he left.

Now that the words “Army of Pacifying the Crisis” had already come out of Tian Wujing’s mouth, the army naturally could not be allowed to remain paralyzed.

So if the discussion truly failed... they were really going to rebel?

Truthfully, City Defender Zheng was not prepared for rebellion yet.

Even though the Demon Kings beneath him—and Zheng Fan himself—had always kept “rebellion” as a small personal goal somewhere in the back of their minds, this was not how it was supposed to happen.

And if the Marquis of Jingnan truly rebelled, the difficulty would be immense.

Too many factions would never compromise with him.

After all, the Marquis of Jingnan had once exterminated his own clan.

That meant there was no negotiating table.

If Tian Wujing rebelled, then the only path to success would be to rely on the army beneath him and beat every opponent into submission by force.

When Zheng Fan reached the entrance of the Marquis’s residence and saw A’Ming, he was genuinely surprised.

At the same time, a powerful sense of security immediately returned.

Zheng Fan led A’Ming back inside.

The residence felt unusually deserted.

The armored soldiers stationed throughout the grounds did not attempt to stop Zheng Fan.

They crossed the courtyard and passed through the covered corridor until Zheng Fan brought A’Ming into the mourning hall.

“Master, when this subordinate arrived, I saw the Marquis of Jingnan leaving.”

“He went to Tianhu Mountain to meet the Grand Eunuch,” Zheng Fan replied.

“There certainly are a lot of eunuchs from the palace around here.”

“What about you?”

“Master, I came to Litian City accompanying Eunuch Zhang, the Sixth Prince’s attendant. It was on the way anyway.”

Zheng Fan nodded.

“The Blind Man will probably arrive tomorrow.”

“If the Marquis of Jingnan truly intends to rebel, then things are about to become interesting.”

“You sound pleased.”

“Master, this subordinate is deeply saddened.”

“Oh.”

Zheng Fan gestured for A’Ming to follow him into the mourning hall.

The coffin lid had not been closed.

Dujuan lay inside.

It was obvious that her body had already been prepared.

Judging by the state of the mourning hall, her subordinates must have arranged everything.

Then, when the Marquis of Jingnan returned, he had ordered the entire process stopped.

“A’Ming, examine Dujuan’s wounds for me.”

“That would be a grave act of disrespect,” A’Ming reminded him.

This was the body of a Marquis’s wife.

Could an outsider simply touch it as he pleased?

“I told you to examine her, so examine her.

“I know your surgical knowledge is exceptional.”

A man who had been dissected countless times and used as an arrow target just as often could hardly be unfamiliar with the structure and details of the human body.

Even a true master of anatomy might not be as experienced as A’Ming.

After all, A’Ming could cut himself open whenever he wanted and take a look.

“This subordinate... obeys.”

A’Ming loosened the clothes on Dujuan’s body.

She had been dressed in a silk brocade robe.

The entire scene was extraordinarily strange.

Inside the heavily guarded residence of the Marquis of Jingnan, two men were actually examining the body of the Marquis’s wife.

And yet the main hall was, paradoxically, one of the safest places in the entire residence.

No one dared approach it.

There was no need to worry about being seen or interrupted.

Of course, from the perspective of modern people, very few would regard coroners or forensic physicians as desecrating the dead.

Especially when the cause of death was suspicious.

At such times, they were needed to speak on behalf of the deceased.

While A’Ming examined the body, Zheng Fan leaned against the edge of the coffin and looked down at Dujuan’s face.

In truth, he had not interacted with Dujuan very often.

His earliest impression of her had been that she was an exceptionally capable and decisive woman.

But as his relationship with the Marquis of Jingnan grew closer and closer, Dujuan, as Tian Wujing’s wife, had gradually come to feel like an elder sister-in-law to Zheng Fan.

“Master, there are two different types of wounds.

“One appears to be an incision similar to a Caesarean section. It was stitched closed afterward.

“The other is a sword wound.

“The sword wound is what killed her.”

“I know.”

The Marquis of Jingnan had already told him that much.

What Zheng Fan wanted to know was whether A’Ming could uncover anything Tian Wujing had missed.

“This woman most likely forced the child out herself.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, Master.

“Judging by the direction of the abdominal incision, the way the wound was opened, and the stitching technique afterward, it is possible to infer the direction in which the person’s hands were working...”

As he spoke, A’Ming raised both hands in front of Zheng Fan.

“When I used to cut open my own abdomen or stitch myself back together, I often left wounds like this.”

A firsthand demonstration.

Using himself as the example.

Powerful.

So powerful there was almost no room to argue.

Zheng Fan nodded.

“So we can be certain Dujuan delivered the child herself?”

“Most likely, yes.

“If someone else had done it, it would be extremely difficult to reproduce this exact pattern of injury and stitching.

“The amount of force used, the posture during the stitching, and several other small details all change depending on who is performing the procedure.

“Faking this convincingly would be extremely difficult.

“More importantly, if Dujuan had been unconscious, this kind of stitching could not have been produced.

“And if she had been conscious, who could have operated on her abdomen like this without her controlling the process?”

“That makes sense.”

There were countless details involved that only someone accustomed to dissecting and stitching up his own body could recognize.

“As for this sword wound...”

“What about it?”

“She died on Tianhu Mountain?”

“I know.”

“But the outside world has never been clear about exactly how she died.”

“I only learned the details myself just now.”

“Master, look here.”

A’Ming reached out and lifted Dujuan’s upper body slightly.

“Look at this area.

“The internal injuries here, together with the fractures in the bones, indicate that shortly before she died, she most likely fell from somewhere.”

“She fell from somewhere on Tianhu Mountain?

“Right. Ma Kui said Dujuan was ‘gone’ for a period of time.

“She must have fallen somewhere, disappeared from sight, then been found again and brought back to the Marquis’s residence.”

“Master, judging by the condition of her internal organs, there are no signs of poisoning.”

“The fatal injury was the sword wound,” Zheng Fan said.

“That is exactly where the problem lies.”

“What problem?”

“This world is different from the one we originally came from.

“This world has Martial Artists—cultivators, in general.

“Their physical capabilities can exceed those of ordinary people by an enormous margin.

“That is why this woman could perform a Caesarean incision on herself without simply dying on the spot.”

“Yes.”

“But this sword wound...”

A’Ming mimed gripping a sword and thrusting it forward.

Then he asked, “Master, Hero Chen is still in our city, isn’t he?”

“He is in Shengle.”

“You have seen Hero Chen use a sword before, yes?”

“I have.”

“Right.

“Anyone capable of assassinating Dujuan should have been an expert.

“Perhaps not on Hero Chen’s level, but certainly not weak.”

Dujuan herself was a Martial Artist.

Even setting aside the guards who should have been around her, assassinating her was not something an ordinary person could accomplish simply by picking up a sword.

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

“What I mean, Master, is that this thrust is too plain.

“Too simple.

“She truly was stabbed to death by the sword itself.”

“...”

Zheng Fan fell silent.

Where was his bow?

“Master, when Hero Chen uses a sword, there is light around it—shua, shua, shua.

“That is the sort of thing people here call sword qi or sword aura.

“Even when Master uses a saber now, you can reinforce the blade with your qi and blood and produce saber force, correct?”

“You mean...”

“That is exactly the problem.

“When a true expert attacks with a sharp weapon like a sword, the physical blade itself is often not the most lethal part.

“The sword force attached to it is the real killing move.

“It produces something somewhat similar to an explosion.

“Actually, ‘explosion’ is not quite the right word.

“When Master used arrows reinforced with qi and blood to shoot me before, the injury did not come only from the arrowhead entering my body.

“The qi and blood attached to it immediately caused a second wave of damage and enlarged the wound.”

“I understand what you mean.”

“No, Master. It goes beyond that.

“This sword wound shows no sign of that secondary damage.

“And judging by the body, if we exclude the other injuries as causes of death, then Dujuan really was killed by this sword thrust.

“But the sword entered through the abdomen...

“How should I put it?

“The abdomen is actually a relatively difficult place to kill someone instantly with a stab.

“When street thugs fight, people are often stabbed in the belly and bleed heavily, but death usually comes from blood loss.

“That process takes time.

“You may even have enough time to stuff your intestines back into your abdomen if they spill out.”

“Get to the point.”

“The point is this, Master.

“You have been wounded on the battlefield before.

“When an arrow hits you or a blade cuts you, what is your first reaction?”

“I use my qi and blood to control the muscles around the wound, compressing it to prevent excessive bleeding or further tearing.

“Then I wait until later to deal with the injury properly.”

“Exactly.

“That is what a normal person’s body does instinctively after being stabbed as well—the muscles contract.

“But a Martial Artist has far more precise control over the body, so the contraction can be stronger and more effective.

“Every time I block a blade or sword for Master, I do the same thing.

“It reduces the wound’s effect on my mobility and lets me continue protecting you properly.

“And every time I later treat those wounds, I notice that injuries handled this way look noticeably different from ordinary external wounds.”

“Then Dujuan’s wound...?”

“Her wound is very smooth.

“In fact, it is almost too smooth.”

“So...”

“So that means...”

A’Ming raised both hands as though gripping an invisible sword.

Then he thrust it into his own abdomen.

“Based on this subordinate’s understanding of anatomy, I suspect the Marquis of Jingnan’s wife may very well have... killed herself.”

[End of Chapter 274]