Not long after the eting ended, Yulia brought over all the relevant materials on the case of the young girl’s suicide. The docunts from this month’s investigation alone stacked up taller than a person.
The Archbishop of Light held an exalted position, and the case’s impact was rare in the history of God’s Country. God’s Country had mobilized the entire nation’s resources to investigate for a whole month, yet they failed to find a single flaw in the case.
Wang Lan and his three companions quickly flipped through the docunts. Yulia stood by, ready to answer questions about the recorded text at any mont. Wang Lan did nothing else that day, spending the entire ti going over the docunts.
As the sun set in the west, Wang Lan finally lifted his head and rubbed the area between his eyebrows.
"It’s too beautiful. Practically perfect..." Wang Lan couldn’t help but sigh.
"Yes, all the evidence shows that the truth of the matter is exactly as it appears. No wonder that, faced with such evidence, the Archbishop of Light couldn’t defend himself and could only die to atone."
"No, I an that this murder plot is too perfect, just like the perfect murder cases I’ve seen before."
"Uh... What do you an?" Yulia was montarily astonished, but then she suddenly sprang to her feet. "Wang Lan, are you saying... Do you an... you’ve found a clue? Have you found evidence that the Archbishop of Light was frad?"
"Uh..." Wang Lan was startled by Yulia’s excited reaction but then he lifted the diary he was holding. "All the clues centered on investigating this diary. You’ve put so much effort into proving the diary wasn’t written by the girl that you even suspected the Holy Knight who first opened it."
"So what do we do? He’s the only one who might have had ti to switch out the diary."
"The evidence proving the Archbishop of Light’s guilt is in the content of the diary, so the diary is the key. But if we assu that this is all a plot by the Hell Monarch, then this diary is forged."
"It’s not forged..." Yulia sighed in dejection. "We’ve investigated for a month and scrutinized even the smallest details. Every entry in the diary, including the described weather and the girl’s handwriting, shows no flaws. We didn’t deny the Archbishop of Light a chance to defend himself. However, the tis described in the diary, when the Archbishop of Light supposedly committed his cris, were precisely when he was alone with the girl. It was just the two of them... The Archbishop of Light had no defense."
"What about the Spirit Engraving?" Jiang Xinyu asked doubtfully.
"God’s Country’s high-ranking clergy cannot be subject to Spirit Engraving, and the content from the engraving could also be false. God’s Country has mory-weaving Star Martial Skills..."
"mory weaving? It can weave a person’s mories? Isn’t that terrifying? Couldn’t anyone be brainwashed into a slave like this?"
"No, altering soone else’s mories is a forbidden art, and to this day, no one can master it. This type of mory weaving is for manipulating one’s own mories."
"Weave their own? Is that self-deception?" Xu Xiangwen asked flippantly.
"Not quite. A long ti ago, the Heaven God Sect was not the world’s largest religion. In the struggle for believers, the Heaven God Sect had to display its orthodoxy through miracles. However, if you simply spoke of miracles, others might not believe you. So, they would weave their own mories and then use Spiritual Engraving to make others believe the miracles truly existed..."
As she spoke, Yulia’s voice weakened. This thod was no different from deception, so the current clerics of God’s Country preferred not to ntion those old days.
"I rember now!" Xu Xiangwen laughed in realization. "More than a thousand years ago, things like the Garden of Eden appeared, angels descended, the God of Heaven scattered light, and the gates of heaven appeared. I was curious when I was studying foreign history. Back then, on the Western Continent, it seed like humans and angels lived together. Miracles could be seen everywhere on the streets, and people blessed by God could be found. So that’s what it was all about!"
"Wang Lan, why don’t you tell us about the perfect murder?" Yulia prompted.
"It happened in an unnad small town, where a murder took place. A woman reported that she had killed her husband. The guards arrived at the scene. The signs of murder were very clear: the woman had stabbed her husband to death with a pair of scissors. In Jade Country, murder is a serious cri. Logically, the woman would have received at least a twenty-year prison sentence. But in the end, this woman was released without charge."
"How is that possible? Didn’t the woman confess to the cri?" Yulia asked, puzzled.
"That’s because after her husband got drunk, he would beco violent—and not just on the spot, but after falling asleep. Once violent, he wouldn’t recognize anyone and would often beat the woman severely. Several tis, the woman nearly died from her husband’s outbursts, but he wouldn’t take advice and remained addicted to alcohol. That night, the husband beca violent again, broke free from the ropes with which the woman had tied him, picked up a stool, and started beating her. In the struggle, the woman finally stabbed her husband in the heart with the scissors..."
"I see... Then that woman indeed wasn’t guilty; it should be classified as self-defense."
"The judge thought the sa, so he acquitted the woman."
"Then how does this count as a perfect murder?" Yulia asked, still confused.
"Because the judge knew these details solely from the woman’s diary. The woman also had the habit of keeping a diary. For three years, her diary frequently recorded incidents of her being beaten by her husband when he was drunk and violent. After the husband lost his job, his drinking worsened, and the frequency of the beatings increased. Eventually, the woman was beaten almost every other day, until she had to hide at a friend’s house. But what I must tell you is... that diary was forged by the woman. Her husband, when drunk, never beca violent; he would sleep like a dead pig. Their relationship had reached a breaking point. The injuries on her body weren’t from his drunken episodes, but from their fights."
At Wang Lan’s words, Yulia shot to her feet in shock. A chill rose from the depths of her heart.
The diary... All the evidence of the Archbishop of Light’s cris was in that diary. However, everyone had been trying to prove that the diary wasn’t written by the girl who committed suicide. They hadn’t considered that while the diary was indeed written by the girl, the content itself might have been fabricated by her...
"This... this is impossible..." Yulia couldn’t accept this speculation. If she did, it would an they had been incredibly foolish—that the entirety of God’s Country had been incredibly foolish.
"Why is it impossible?" Wang Lan asked calmly, looking at the panicked Yulia.
"The girl jumped to her death!"
"Is it not a worthwhile trade, exchanging a young girl’s life for the Archbishop of Light’s?" Wang Lan asked calmly. "Of course, these are just my speculations. I’m rely offering a different line of thought, seeing as you’ve already investigated so thoroughly. Firstly, given how thoroughly you’ve investigated, we no longer need to question if the diary truly ca from that girl; it’s almost certainly genuine in that respect. The girl was sent to the welfare institute fourteen years ago."
Wang Lan picked up one of the docunts. "Sorry, my Gran language isn’t very good. Can you translate this section for ?"
"In 5008, late at night around nine, a nun from the Holy City Welfare Institute found Li abandoned at the institute’s door. This phenonon is common in God’s Country, so the nun took Li into the welfare institute. At the ti, Li was about a month old and very healthy..."
"Wait!" Wang Lan suddenly stopped Yulia. He had also noticed this part of the content. However, so vocabulary in God’s Country differed slightly from what he had learned. While communication wasn’t an issue, he couldn’t rely solely on general comprehension when it ca to the fine details. This was why he asked Yulia to translate it into the Huaxia language.
"Li was already a full month old when she was sent to the welfare institute? How old are most of the children abandoned at such institutes?"
"Most are between one and two weeks old," Yulia replied imdiately. "But while a full month is less common, it’s not unheard of. Are you concerned about Li’s identity?"
"Are there any photos of Li from when she was younger?"
"I have a stack of photos here," Xu Xiangwen said as he took a stack of photos from the box.
"Wang Lan, Li was only a month old when she was sent to the welfare institute. What problem could there be with her identity?" Yulia asked.
"Do you know how much courage it takes for soone to jump off a building to commit suicide?" Wang Lan said. "Although Li was raised in the welfare institute, what if she was tampered with before she was sent there? For example, if a Skill Form was inscribed in her mind, or if so sort of will was instilled into her subconscious?"
Wang Lan’s words imdiately made Yulia feel a chill down her spine; it was terrifying.
Wang Lan found a photo of Li when she was just learning to walk and had Xiao Ai scan it on the computer.
"Matching photo found," Xiao Ai suddenly announced, and a photo appeared on Wang Lan’s computer. With the appearance of the photo, the truth of the matter surfaced.
"Brittany... born in 5008 in Elan City, St. State. Stolen when she was seven days old, her whereabouts unknown."
"Li was from St. State," Wang Lan stated. "She was stolen by the Hell Monarch just after she was born. Clearly, this was the Hell Monarch’s deathtrap for the Archbishop of Light."
Seeing all this, Yulia quickly stood up and walked out the door.
Wang Lan looked at the three people around him and spread his hands. "Sotis, solving a case is just this simple."
"The Archbishop of Light... just died like that? A Star Soul Realm master! A peerless powerhouse on the sa level as the Five Emperors!"
"Even the powerful are not invincible. As long as you find their flaws and weaknesses, you can kill without spilling blood," Jiang Xinyu said with a hint of emotion.
The night was deep, the stars brilliant. In God’s Country, the nights were a tapestry of city lights and starlight.
「The City of Angels, the Holy Court.」
In the Cathedral, around a huge round table, sat fourteen people dressed in exquisite divine robes. They were n and won, so with white hair, others bewitchingly charming. But without exception, they all wore grave expressions.
"We investigated for a month with no progress, yet he uncovered the truth in just one day. Wang Lan of Jade Country... he’s terrifying..."
"So what do we do next? Announce it to the whole country?"
"It must be announced! Even if we are branded as incompetent and foolish, justice must be served for the Archbishop of Light!" declared the Archbishop of Light’s successor, pounding his fist with undeniable resolve.
"At this point... does justice even matter?" a low, resentful voice questioned. Everyone looked up at the Bishop of Justice.
"When the Archbishop of Light pleaded his innocence, who among you supported him? Who believed in him as I did?" The Bishop of Justice’s gaze, like scorching flas, swept over them. No one dared to et his stare.
Ultimately, the Bishop of Justice fixed his gaze on the Pope.
"Your Holiness, what about you?"
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