Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Do You Know How? _1
Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Do You Know How? _1
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The death of this dicinal herb rchant was incredibly grueso. More than half of his body’s flesh and blood were missing, revealing stark white bones. In particular, all four limbs had been torn off, leaving only the bones and a little residue of flesh.
Historian Liu continued to introduce, “Our forensic doctor discovered at least nine different sets of bite marks on the body. The fatal injury is a bite to the neck, the flesh of his arms and thighs has been eaten. Besides, there are nurous wolf footprints at the scene, along with a trail of blood-stained footprints.”
At this point, Historian Liu pointed out a spot about seven zhang away: “The footprints match the rchant’s shoes; it looks like he was chased and bitten here, fell down after running seven zhang, and died on this spot. If you look carefully, you can observe the disorderly nature of his steps. The case itself is straightforward, but the only curious point is so residual demon aura at the scene. We suspect that the leader of the wolf pack had its Spirit Aperture opened, turning it into a demon beast.”
Jiang Hanyun surveyed the surroundings, then instructed Li Xuan, “You perform the autopsy on the body; I’ll investigate the scene.”
Even before she finished speaking, the three-tailed spirit fox had already leapt from her shoulder towards the origin of the bloodied footprints.
Li Xuan took his case and moved towards the body, preparing to perform the autopsy.
He had been a forensic doctor for two years, yet facing the second autopsy after his transmigration, he found himself unusually captivated.
When he opened the iron case and saw the tools inside, he could not help but lant their crudity. There were items unknown to modern forensic science. Li Xuan had to carefully sift through the mories of his previous body to understand the purposes for these tools.
For example, the ginger and garlic in the box was used to squeeze into juice on a cloth strip, which was used to mask the sll of the corpse. Additionally, there were so talismans and materials for performing Taoist techniques, like cinnabar, Rootless Water, etc.
“Do you know how?” ca a young man’s voice, infused with a trace of vicissitude.
Li Xuan looked up to see a young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a square face and large ears, who was looking at him with a trace of ridicule, sarcasm, and even animosity.
“Who are you?” Li Xuan quickly noticed an identical case, although made of wood and smaller in the young man’s hand.
“Are you the forensic doctor of Jiangning County?”
In an instant, he understood the source of the man’s hostility. It was surely born out of jealousy.
In Li Xuan’s original world, in ancient tis, the forensic doctors recorded in history were composed of low-status poor people. The children of these forensic doctors not only could not participate in the imperial examination normally, but they also could not marry ordinary people. Their status was no different from that of prostitutes.
The situation here was not much different, but perhaps because there were more homicide cases related to beasts and ghosts, the upgraded version of forensic doctors in the Jin Dynasty, Spiritual Handlers, had a high social status. They were core pillars in the Liudao Division and various local governnts, and they basically all had official positions.
Even so, Li Xuan had never intended to work hard in this aspect as his previous body; after all, he was the second son of the Earl of Chengyi and had a promising future.
But what the previous Li Xuan saw as insignificant might be what others dream of, like this young forensic doctor in front of him.
“A humble man, I dare not accept your title, my surna is Zhang.” The forensic doctor surnad Zhang courteously clasped his fists, “I wanted to see the skills of Historian Liu’s top apprentice.”
Li Xuan speculated that he must have known this man; it was clear from searching through his forr body’s mories. He found evidence of this man and his presence in the Liudao Division’s recruitnt of Spiritual Undertaker apprentices two years ago.
Then, ignoring this man, he focused his attention on the corpse and began the autopsy.
Even as the man accused Li Xuan of wrongdoing. Li Xuan did not feel any guilt, as he slipped back into the mories of having done this before. First, this was the conduct of his forr incarnate and the Earl of Chengyi. Secondly, without him, this young man could hardly get into the Liudao Fumo Division. There were dozens of people with profound backgrounds ahead of him, how could he have a chance?
But the world of the Jin Dynasty was darker than he had imagined. The Liudao Fumo Division, which had been protecting the people for 1,200 years, was certainly not as clean as it used to be.
Li Xuan first estimated the ti of death: “The ti of death was around four shichen, no! It should be two shichen.”
He almost forgot about the ancient way of recording ti; one shichen here was equivalent to two hours in the modern world.
The forensic doctor surnad Zhang raised his eyebrows, “What makes you say so?”
“A significant amount of blood loss coupled with last night’s low temperature resulted in the discoloration of the body at different ti scales from usual.”
Without looking up, Li Xuan first sared a layer of transparent oil on his hands and then cast a ‘Yuanyi Spell’, enveloping his hands with Zhenyuan, which rged with the oil.
There were no gloves in this era, but the Spiritual Handlers had carried down a spell even ordinary Wu cultivators could use, which had the sa effect as gloves.
Although Li Xuan’s original incarnation was a scoundrel, he was incredibly talented and had learned quite a bit. The last ti at the restaurant, he had not used it because he did not have the materials and tools needed for casting.
After using the spell, Li Xuan began to inspect the tattered garnts on the body.
Li Xuan noticed so powder on various parts of the body and its clothes, then realized thanks to the mory of the body’s original owner, that this was Mimosa powder, indicating that soone had perford a Summoning Spell on this corpse.
He did not care and continued the search. He then inspected the hair, moving from the top down to avoid missing an inch of skin or a single detail, sotis going back to double-check.
The work of a forensic doctor is grueling and exhausting. Li Xuan has never subscribed to sentints like ‘speaking for the corpse and restoring the dignity of the deceased.’ However, whenever he saw the grieving family mbers crying, he felt obliged to be thorough, out of respect to the victims.
Beside, the most important thing in the field of forensic dicine is ticulousness.
As Li Xuan moved on to examine the chest and abdon, the disdain in Undertaker Zhan’s eyes began to fade.
Li Xuan’s thods were skilled, professional, and incredibly detailed.
What intrigued Li Xuan was that the deceased’s chest had been torn open, with vital organs like the heart and kidneys missing, only a portion of the intestines remained.
About a quarter of an hour later, Li Xuan rose with a frown, “I have identified twelve different types of bite marks, the fatal wound is a bite from behind in the neck.”
The conclusions of the Jiangning County Undertaker were broadly correct.
Based on the wounds, Li Xuan guessed that this dicine dealer was bitten on the back of the neck by a wolf while running, severely damaging his carotid artery and blood vessels.
Then, Li Xuan took out a vial of blue liquid and sprinkled it evenly over the front and back of the corpse and the severed limbs.
This was the urine from the ‘Earth Dragon’, the large lizard he and Jiang Hanyun had ridden earlier.
As Li Xuan chanted an incantation while making hand signs, four faint streams of black energy appeared around the body.
“There is indeed demon qi! One of the auras at the back of the neck is slightly different from the other three. This wolf pack has two wolves with awakened Spirit Apertures.”
Next, Li Xuan sprinkled so powder derived from Mimosa flowers.
He was now preparing to perform the ‘Summoning Spell’. The Mimosa nourishes souls, and Mimosa flower powder can help ghosts gather spirit bodies.
Ordinary people’s souls are weak; under normal circumstances, they can’t maintain their spirit bodies after death. After losing their bodies, they would be dissipated by the sunlight and starlight. Therefore, they must rely on external forces to briefly regroup their soul fragnts.
“You’re going to summon the soul?” Undertaker Zhan spoke again: “The ti of death has already exceeded four Shichens (2 hours), it’s impossible to summon the soul anymore. I’ve tried, I believe my Summoning Spell is no less powerful than yours.”
Li Xuan glanced at him again before proceeding to cast the spell: “I’ll try again, who knows? I might succeed.”
The executors of the ‘Lingwu’ has a different way of examining corpses from ordinary executors..
The two spells that Li Xuan had just used were Lingwu techniques, but that doesn’t an others couldn’t learn them.
Since the Undertaker Zhan before him was keen on developing into a Lingwu, it was reasonable for him to master several Lingwu spells.
Especially the ‘Summoning Spell’, which was widely circulated, with many constables in Jinling City knowing how to use it.
As expected, Li Xuan’s ‘Summoning Spell’ failed. He managed to gather the residual soul of the deceased in front of him, but was unable to make them take form.
On one hand, this was because Li Xuan’s spell was amateur; his attempt this ti was mainly for practice and experintation. On the other hand, it was because the deceased had died a long ti ago.
According to the mory of his previous life, it’s hard to summon a ghost if death exceeds half a Shichen (1 hour). The longer the ti of death, the less information you can get from the soul of the deceased.
Therefore, when performing an autopsy, if the ti of death is within half a Shichen, it must first be the Summoning Spell and then the autopsy. If the ti of death exceeds half a Shichen, then it must first be the autopsy, and then the Summoning Spell, to avoid the Mimosa flower powder affecting the inspection of the corpse.
Even if it’s within three minutes after death, you can only ask one or two questions at most, so this spell is just a supplent to the autopsy.
The poison murder case that happened at Ertou Bridge before didn’t require it since the cause of death was evident at a glance; whereas in Lanyue House, it couldn’t be used.
The wealthy families of the Jin Dynasty generally believe that the Summoning Spell would harm the deceased’s soul and affect their reincarnation. Therefore, this is taboo, unless permission has been granted by the family mbers.
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