In front of the Myriad Things Come shop, Qiao Bin hurried as fast as he could, but he was still a step behind Yun Zishan. By the time he hurriedly landed on his Flying Sword, Yun Zishan had already arrived and was talking with Xu Yinyin.
After confirming the details of the night before last with Xu Yinyin, Yun Zishan turned to Qiao Bin, who had just landed. Her gaze was sharp. "Well? What were the results?"
Qiao Bin swallowed nervously and did his best to steady his breathing before cupping his hands and reporting, "To answer Hall Master Yun, based on my examination, there's no doubt that the Undercover Agent died yesterday."
Yun Zishan nodded and pressed, "What time yesterday, exactly?"
"Hall Master," Qiao Bin said, gathering his thoughts before explaining, "The dungeon is cold and damp, and its temperature is much lower than outside. That slows the changes in a corpse. Judging by the stiffness and slight signs of decay, the time of death... should have been yesterday morning."
In fact, Qiao Bin had concluded that the time of death was "morning" by weighing several factors.
First, although the poison normally took twelve shichen to act, the Undercover Agent had been in extremely poor condition: he had missed two consecutive meals, endured brutal interrogation and torture, and had his mind completely shattered by Yang Ning's special methods. With all these factors combined, after the poison took effect, his body had rapidly failed. He had died one shichen earlier than the expected twelve.
Second, when the poison took effect inside the body, it produced an unusual surge of scorching energy (just as Yang Ning himself had felt a searing heat in his abdomen after taking the poison in Chapter Eighteen). This energy hastened the loss of vital force, and