Nineteenth Chapter: I'm Afraid I Might Accidentally Beat You to Death
Tang Ruowei hesitated. "Master only taught me how to kill. I'm afraid I might accidentally beat you to death."
The Crown Prince of Dingguo had inherited Emperor Qu Peng's excellent genes and was a burly man, too. His muscles weren't as fearsome as his father's, but they still hinted at tremendous strength. Just looking at his physique, one could tell that the Crown Prince was no ordinary fighter.
"When a person is dead, what use is a corpse? Can it take my son's place and inherit my throne?"
"Just this one delicate young woman?"
Damn, he was really leaving no opening.
He raised a hand and ordered, "Attendants, take these two young ladies to examine the Crown Prince's body."
Zuo Yanfei began investigating the cause of the Crown Prince of Dingguo's death, while Tang Ruowei helped her. Bai Qiuran also opened his eyes and glanced over the corpse.
Tang Ruowei said, "That was clearly a Fox Demon. But to ambush the Crown Prince of Dingguo—whose strength was equivalent to the peak of the Qi Refining Stage—under the protection of Dingguo's elite guards, and do so without being discovered, it would need to be incredibly powerful. A demon of that level would have to be insane to sneak in past every guard just to bite the Crown Prince and leave a wound that wasn't even fatal. What a lunatic."
"Your humble junior is dull-witted and short-sighted. What could I possibly have to say?"
After leaving the place where the Crown Prince's body lay, Zuo Yanfei and Tang Ruowei went together to the site where the Crown Prince had met his end.
"Your Majesty, please think this through!"
Tang Ruowei recalled the cultural studies she'd taken at the Azure Nether Sword Sect.
Bai Qiuran scratched his head, pretending to look confused.
"It's different. Anyone can tell at a glance that Miss Zuo is a heroine, a woman of great courage."
"But this young lady looks much more delicate. When she doesn't speak, she looks like a refined young lady... No, like one of my daughters."
The Crown Prince's body lay before Bai Qiuran and the two women. Thanks to the careful preservation by Dingguo's officials, it hadn't decayed or begun to smell, and was in excellent condition.
"Forget whether it was done by hand. I think the wound on the Crown Prince's shoulder is suspicious to begin with."
"Then let me tell you what I found."
Tang Ruowei took a look. The wound on his shoulder seemed to have been made by something biting him. Judging by how badly the flesh had been torn, it certainly didn't look like the work of human teeth.
Are you saying I'm not feminine, that I'm basically a man?
After looking away, Bai Qiuran had more or less figured out the cause of the Crown Prince's death. Just then, Tang Ruowei suddenly looked up and asked, "Junior Brother, what do you think?"
"No, no, this one is just a junior brother. His cultivation isn't high."
Tang Ruowei cursed inwardly. From the look in Bai Qiuran's eyes just now, she knew he'd already figured something out. But this guy wouldn't say a word. Even when caught off guard, he stayed calm and composed. No wonder he'd lived for so many years.
Emperor Qu Peng let out a cold laugh. "You little girl certainly talk big. I'd quite like to see how you'd beat me to death... But no matter what, I'm still the ruler of a nation. If you killed me, the people left behind wouldn't be under my control, and they'd surely come after you. So, never mind. You can prove your strength to me during this investigation."
"Oh?"
Zuo Yanfei looked disappointed, but still said, "Come on, Ruowei. Let's take a look at the other places."
Zuo Yanfei said, "I suspect someone is hiding something. Perhaps to save their own life, perhaps for some other reason."
Zuo Yanfei replied, "My family used to be hunters. Before I joined the Divine Martial Heavenly Army, I often went hunting in the mountains with my father. Fox pelts were worth a lot back then, and I was once bitten by a wild fox."
Zuo Yanfei was as swift and decisive as ever. After entering the hall, she didn't say a word. She walked straight to the Crown Prince's body and yanked off the white cloth covering it.
The old eunuch beside them jumped in alarm and hurried to stop her. "That is the Crown Prince's body. Don't push your luck!"
Emperor Qu Peng knitted his brows and said angrily, "Then it would be better to make it useful and help me find my son's murderer!"
Zuo Yanfei said with some displeasure.
"Then was it a demon?"
Emperor Qu Peng waved a hand.
The Crown Prince's body had been placed on a stone platform in the middle of the hall, covered with a white cloth. The two guards hadn't come inside. Instead, an old eunuch had accompanied them, presumably to keep an eye on Bai Qiuran and the others and stop them from doing anything to the body.
Zuo Yanfei pointed at a wound on the Crown Prince of Dingguo's shoulder. "This wound clearly wasn't inflicted by a human."
"True, but there's no visible wound left on the surface."
"Your Majesty, I'm a woman, too."
The place where the Crown Prince was said to have died was beside a canal in Dingguo's imperial city. Apparently, a troupe had set up a stage to perform on the street beside the canal, while the Crown Prince of Dingguo watched from the top of a nearby tavern, drinking as he watched.
The spendthrift Crown Prince had rented out the entire floor, and the only people there were him and his guards.
"But this doesn't look like a fatal wound."
"Oh?"
"Hey, hey, hey, young ladies!"
"There are no signs of a struggle here."
Zuo Yanfei pointed at Bai Qiuran, then at Tang Ruowei. "But this young lady comes from a distinguished family, just like me. Her strength is absolutely no less than mine!"
"This... Let's forget it."
But Emperor Qu Peng didn't notice Zuo Yanfei's expression. He looked at Tang Ruowei, flexed his muscles, and beckoned to her. "Come, young lady. Let me test your strength."
Emperor Qu Peng took two deep breaths, his chest rising and falling as though he were trying to rein in his temper. Then he looked at Bai Qiuran and Tang Ruowei beside him and asked, "Are these two your companions? Are they strong, too?"
"Alas, Emperor Qu Peng has even let us examine his son's body. We ought to show him some respect. The dead deserve to be honored; we can't desecrate their bodies at will."
Two guards came in from the courtyard and led Bai Qiuran and the two women to a heavily guarded palace where the Crown Prince's body had been placed.
But after Zuo Yanfei and Tang Ruowei looked around, they discovered a problem.
Zuo Yanfei's expression grew even more displeased.
Zuo Yanfei said.
Zuo Yanfei pondered. "If we could open his chest..."
But it was said that he'd been killed without a sound while watching the performance.
"It was probably a fox."
The young eunuch's legs shook with fright. He knelt on the ground and repeatedly kowtowed, apologizing.
The eunuch beside him hurriedly urged, "That is the Crown Prince's royal body."
"But what made this wound?"
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