"Excuse , where is the Li Family?"
He headed out into the streets.
The Sky Cave was still enveloped in eternal darkness.
Lin Fan walked westward, asking about the direction to the Li Family.
Finally, guided by others, he arrived in front of a quiet, secluded courtyard.
"Sothing’s not right, there’s a sll of blood."
Just as Zhao Jiaqi was about to knock on the door,
Lin Fan grabbed her wrist.
With his extensive battlefield experience, he was particularly sensitive to the scent of blood.
Even if it was just a faint whiff in the air,
it couldn’t escape his nose.
"It’s so quiet; could sothing have happened?"
Zhao Jiaqi was startled.
She quickly listened attentively.
In the vast courtyard, there was not a single sound.
But through the ancient door,
lights could vaguely be seen inside.
"Don’t go through the door; be wary of traps. Let’s climb over the wall."
Sensing that sothing was amiss, Lin Fan,
imdiately leaped over the two-ter-high earthen wall, landing lightly in the courtyard.
Zhao Jiaqi followed him closely.
Although the landing was sowhat loud, the house remained eerily quiet.
Without saying much, Lin Fan gestured to Zhao Jiaqi,
then tiptoed towards the inside.
The entire Li Family compound was a small quadrangle.
Its quaint appearance was similar to most rural houses.
Approaching the paper-pasted window, Lin Fan gently pried open a corner.
What ca into view was a square table.
However, at the mont, three people were lying face down on the table.
The table was set with small dishes and several overturned wine jars.
The scene resembled that of drunkenness.
"Are they... asleep?"
Crouching below the window, Zhao Jiaqi also slowly raised her head.
Looking at the motionless trio.
"There’s no breathing; they might have t with so trouble."
Lin Fan contradicted her assumption.
He turned around, pulled open the door, and rushed into the room.
Indeed, the breathing of the three had completely ceased.
He quickly grabbed a wine jar from the table,
and sniffed it under his nose.
"How did they die?"
Zhao Jiaqi, who had hurried in after him, quickly pulled up the bodies of the three Li brothers.
Their faces were pitch-black, eyes tightly shut,
with black blood still oozing from the corners of their mouths.
"Poisoned wine; they probably died from poisoning themselves."
Lin Fan placed the wine jar on the table,
while scanning the surroundings.
The simple house had not much inside.
He searched around but found not a single trace.
"Why would they poison themselves just like that? Could it be because they knew you’ve uncovered the secret of that sword?"
With furrowed brows, Zhao Jiaqi looked at the suddenly deceased brothers.
Their bodies had not yet stiffened,
and no significant livor mortis had appeared.
The ti of death was no more than an hour ago.
That is to say, just as Lin Fan had discovered the secret of the sword at the Holy Maiden Hall,
the three brothers had all taken their lives at ho.
"It’s probably not as simple as suicide. Look at their sitting posture; another person must have been here, but all the dishes have already been cleaned up. So, I suspect soone poisoned them without their knowledge, and after silencing them, hurriedly left,"
Lin Fan observed the scene carefully.
But he was without much modern equipnt and had no experience handling cases.
Not to ntion fingerprint identification.
Being able to deduce that there was one more person was already pretty good.
"So they are just three pawns, and the real culprit is still hidden in this cavern?"
Zhao Jiaqi followed Lin Fan’s line of reasoning.
"I can’t be sure, but it’s very likely. I’ll go out and ask around, maybe I’ll find sothing new. You go to the Holy Maiden Hall and inform Ni Yan about this. It’s clear that the other party knew I was alone with her, so they dared to kill, fearing the person hiding must be very familiar with the cavern and also very aware of her movents," Lin Fan said, rubbing his chin.
The clues were too few; he could only deduce normally.
"Oh, you previously called her an old maid, and now you’re speaking so sweetly. I bet in a few days you’ll be calling her Yan’er."
Zhao Jiaqi pursed her lips.
She absolutely didn’t believe that the two of them had spent an hour in the bedroom
and he hadn’t done anything.
"All right, now is not the ti to be jealous. Hurry up and get moving, otherwise if soone else finds out, we won’t be able to explain ourselves," Lin Fan said helplessly, waving his hands at Zhao Jiaqi.
But as soon as he finished speaking, the door was kicked open.
One by one, a dozen people walked in.
Carrying torches, they blocked the main house.
"It’s a trap," Lin Fan said, seeing the shadows flicker outside.
This hidden guy had predicted his arrival here.
Then to catch him red-handed.
He was too cunning.
Before the two could discuss further,
the inner door was also kicked open.
Suddenly, neighbors holding up torches rushed in.
Seeing the three brothers lying on the ground, one aunt burst into tears and ran outside.
"Murder!"
"Don’t move, you murderers!"
"What grudge did the Li Family have against you that you would slaughter them?"
"I warn you, make another move, and we will report you to the Holy Maiden,"
A few n tightly gripped their clubs, blocking the way out.
People had already started running outside.
"Calm down everyone, we too just arrived and found the bodies," Lin Fan didn’t bother to explain much.
With the clues interrupted, he had to think of another way.
"How coincidental that you just ca in and found bodies," the bald leader said, torch in hand, ready for combat.
"It’s not a coincidence for us. Why did you co then? Was that a coincidence?" Zhao Jiaqi wasn’t willing to take the bla.
Seeing Lin Fan furrow his brows in thought,
she imdiately placed her hands on her hips and started arguing with the others.
"We heard soone shouting that sothing had happened to the Li Family, so we ca to check," several neighbors said in unison.
They had all heard soone shouting, which made them co outside.
"The people have been dead for over an hour now. Just now, we were in the Holy Maiden Hall and didn’t co out. It couldn’t have been us who killed them," Zhao Jiaqi argued loudly.
"We don’t believe you unless you can provide evidence, otherwise we will have to take you to the Holy Maiden," the bald leader bellowed.
But just then, Ni Yan’s voice ca from behind,
"I can testify that they really just arrived and that they ca out from the Holy Maiden Hall, so they are not the criminals. It must be soone else framing them."
The appearance of Ni Yan quieted the previously noisy crowd.
"But Holy Maiden, we saw them here as soon as we arrived. Who else could it be?" several residents said discontentedly, looking at Lin Fan.
In their minds, they had already identified the murderers.
"If it were them, they wouldn’t have stayed here waiting to be caught," Ni Yan’s gaze swept coldly over the dozen or so people in the yard. "Committing murder in the cavern requires a reasonable explanation. Now, no one is allowed to leave."
No one dared to question the judgnt of the Holy Maiden.
But who was it that committed the murder and cover-up?
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