Chapter 734: Speculation

Upon hearing this, the lead Daoist immediately ran inside.

But the other Daoists did not follow, remaining where they stood.

Since the Daoist in front did not move, Tang Zhao naturally did not move either, though he was indeed quite curious. He was hesitating whether to send another light to follow when he saw the lead Daoist beckon to him, saying, "Junior Brother Guo, come over and take a look as well."

Tang Zhao gave an affirmative response and hurriedly followed.

He saw that inside was a separate courtyard, where many corpses had been placed individually.

These were the master and his family of the Hengchang Prince Mansion.

Although they were all corpses, the bodies of the imperial nobility and the servants were both composed of flesh and blood; yet, just as they were different while alive, they were naturally different after death. The servants' corpses were all piled together and would surely be burned to ash by a wild fire in the future. These masters, however, regardless of gender or age, were stored separately, and in the future, the Imperial Clan Court would be requested to properly enshroud them; even after death, they could still enjoy the offerings of incense.

Tang Zhao counted them; there were twelve people in total. This included the Hengchang Prince himself, the Princess Consort, two secondary consorts, the Heir Apparent and his wife, two princes, three grandsons, and one granddaughter.

The young grandson and granddaughter were both at a tender age, not yet having started their schooling, yet they could not escape the disaster of their family's extermination. Three generations of the family, not one missing, all died from external injuries. The only fortunate thing was that they all died quickly and did not suffer much torture.

The lead Daoist asked, "What is it?"

The Daoist who had called him in was dressed in black and wearing Spider Silk Gloves; he was currently poking at one of the corpses. It was a young man, the youngest son of the old Hengchang Prince, who had not yet reached the age of twenty and had not been enfeoffed, so he lived in the Wangfu.

"Is there a problem with this young prince?" the lead Daoist asked in confusion.

He had personally inspected the corpses of these important figures just moments ago and had not discovered any problems. However, this was not a challenge but a simple lack of understanding. Although this junior brother of his was not as clever as Guo Mingfan, he was proficient in medical arts and also understood the methods of a coroner examining corpses; he was a specialist, so it was very likely he could offer a different insight.

The black-clad Daoist pondered and said, "The others have no problems, but this young prince is a Sword Guest."

The lead Daoist gave a hum. He had not known this person was a Sword Guest. But so what if he was a Sword Guest?

Becoming a Sword Guest is difficult, requiring both talent and strength, as well as luck; however, such top-tier wealthy families can delete the "luck" item. As long as they use their influence to search, it is not difficult to find a matching sword. The requirements for talent and strength are also not that high; resources can offset them. Therefore, there are quite a few Sword Guests in wealthy families. It is just that powerful Sword Guests are rare. Many people want to become Sword Guests, aiming for the ability to extend their lives by several decades. As for going further to become a Sword Hero, that is truly something ordinary people cannot do. Not to mention something as ethereal and mysterious as a Sword Heart, just the Sword Essence alone—cultivating through a sword—is a true grind of water-polishing effort. Taking pills and other external forces are of little use; even nobles must practice and train bitterly, and it cannot be done without top-tier perseverance. Therefore, the ratio of Sword Heroes to Sword Guests among the nobility is particularly low.

This young prince was a Sword Guest, which was very possible, but who would remember so much? In Jingcheng, there is no shortage of various powerful officials, and there is no shortage of Sword Guests among those powerful officials. How could the lead Daoist remember them one by one? He just nodded vaguely.

Tang Zhao, however, realized what was happening and said, "Are you saying that this is not the corpse of a Sword Guest?"

When a Sword Guest is alive, if they do not make a move and deliberately use Restraint to lower their presence and disguise themselves, even a Sword Hero would not easily be able to tell. But it is different after death. At that time, they will not actively use Restraint, and their Sword Essence will not dissipate all at once; it will adhere to the body. Even if it dissipates after a long time, a body that has been cultivated is different from one that has not. The bones, muscles, and organs... have all been tempered. Even if one cannot see the difference, one can feel it by touching it.

The lead Daoist hurriedly stepped forward to touch it. After touching it a few times, he asked in confusion, "That's not right, is it? This is indeed the corpse of a Sword Guest."

Tang Zhao listened and also went up to touch it. Sure enough, he only felt that the corpse's bones were hard and the muscles were refined. Although it had been dead for some time, it did not have the discoloration and stiffening seen in the other corpses.

So this is what a Sword Guest looks like after death.

It was not that Tang Zhao had never seen a dead Sword Guest; he had killed Sword Guests and Sword Heroes. But once killed, that was it. Whether it was a Sword Guest or a Sword Hero, the battle ended the moment the enemy died. As for what the remains looked like, he had truly never paid attention. Only by touching it with intent now did he realize that the final traces a Sword Guest leaves to the Human World are indeed different from those of an ordinary person.

To put it harshly, they are also high-grade materials when used as materials for a Rune Formula.

The black-clad Daoist whispered, "No. This Sword Guest is too weak. Before this, the young prince was only one step away from being a Sword Hero!"

"Is that so?" The lead Daoist was extremely suspicious.

The black-clad Daoist's words not only made the lead Daoist suspicious, but Tang Zhao was also quite surprised. Based on the feel he got from touching it, this Sword Guest was just an ordinary Sword Guest.

Once approaching the Sword Hero realm, a Sword Guest's tendons and bones will be cleansed. This is not just a huge change that happens at the moment of breaking through a realm; the slow transformation begins even before the breakthrough.

Take Tang Zhao now, for example. The biggest difference between him and when he came down from Wangliang Mountain half a year ago is not the accumulation of Sword Essence, nor the further progress of his Sword Heart, but the transformation of his body.

The so-called shedding of the mortal frame and changing of bones, entering the immortal from the mortal, is this kind of change. It is a powerful body that can resist all things with its physical form, making a Sword Immortal free from the threats of the mundane world. Otherwise, if one became a Sword Immortal and could flip the world with a wave of their hand, only to be stabbed to death by a child with a dagger while off guard, that would be too ridiculous.

The logic for a Sword Immortal is the same, and it is the same for a Sword Hero. The transformation is less, but there is definitely a change; one can see it, and one can feel it.

Then the meaning of this black-clad Daoist is very clear...

"Can you confirm this?"

"That's right. Previously, this young prince once paid a visit to the State Preceptor, saying that he was stuck in his realm and wanted to ask the State Preceptor for guidance on how to more easily reach the next level, only to be dismissed by the State Preceptor with the words, 'There are no shortcuts in cultivation.' The disciple serving at the side at that time was me. I know his realm well; there is absolutely no problem."

Then that means:

This corpse is very likely not that of the young prince!

Someone is impersonating him!

What is the reason?

In an instant, several thoughts raced through the lead Daoist's mind. The first thing he thought of was: "A cicada shedding its skin!"

It was the young prince himself who did it. For some reason, he wanted to escape, even abandoning his identity as a young prince. Fearing being found, he crazily exterminated his entire family, then had people come to see the corpses, wanting the Dao Palace to prove that he was dead, when in fact he had escaped through a faked death.

No, no, no, it doesn't necessarily have to be such a crazy act of exterminating his own family. If his corpse is fake, how can it be certain that the others are real? Couldn't the whole family have escaped together?

"Then what about the other corpses? Are they real or fake?"

The black-clad disciple shook his head and said, "I can't tell. Actually, if it weren't for this hard flaw in the realm, I wouldn't have been able to tell that this young prince's corpse was fake either. I had met that young prince several times, and even I couldn't tell, let alone others who didn't know him."

Indeed...

Tang Zhao reached out and tore at the corpse's facial skin; it was undoubtedly a real human face. Even with the miraculous disguise techniques of someone like Weise, his face could not withstand being torn by hand.

The lead Daoist slapped his thigh and said, "This is a real human face, not a forgery. It seems the mastermind behind this is undoubtedly the Hengchang Prince's youngest son! It's just a matter of whether it was him alone or the whole family."

"If an outsider had forged the corpses, they would certainly have had to use makeup, or simply destroy the faces to confuse the public. It is absolutely impossible for them to have done it so perfectly and left it out in the open for people to see. This is clearly a substitute prepared long in advance, raised to be exactly the same, and also trained to be a Sword Guest, just for the sake of dying today. What deep-seated planning this is! The Hengchang Prince Mansion, what a grand move, what great audacity!"

The more he thought, the more correct he felt, and he sneered, "In this way, the warning letter also makes sense. It was his own doing, so the timing was naturally accurate. The previous families were also his doing. Having us come over time and time again was to witness that these cases were all done by one mastermind, and this mastermind has not been caught, so no one would ever think of him. This is called 'hiding a tree in a forest.' The series of extermination cases were just to confuse the public, in order to cover up the trickery in the final case."

What, the case is solved just like that?

Tang Zhao pondered according to his line of reasoning, and it did hold up.

Not to mention whether the inference that the corpses were carefully prepared dead soldiers because they were fake but looked especially real is too hasty, just the reason that the series of extermination cases were planned by the Hengchang Prince Mansion to fish in troubled waters is plausible, and it also dissipates that tension of being one step behind. It also solved a problem: will there be a next time?

If the Hengchang Prince Mansion is the mastermind, then there probably won't be a next time. Thinking of this, everyone would feel at ease, and they also hope that this is the truth.

However...

This is just one explanation. If you think about it carefully, there are quite a few loopholes. For example, because it was found that this corpse had a problem, it was guessed that the mastermind was the young prince of the Wangfu, but how do we know that the corpses of the previous families were the actual people?

Are you saying that it wasn't found to be fake at the time?

This time it was found by pure, pure coincidence. If it weren't for the fact that this disciple had a connection with the young prince that others didn't know about, wouldn't it have been fooled through?

How do we know there wasn't negligence before?

As for the corpses not being disguised but still being able to pass for the real thing, that is very likely the effect of a Sword Technique.

To say that using a Sword Technique leaves traces and Sword Essence is the general situation. Only continuous influence will have obvious characteristics. For example, if it makes people disappear, the Sword Technique of Disappearance will always be in effect; if the Sword Technique stops, it will recover. But the State Preceptor's lightning would make a person physically disappear; once disappeared, they are gone—a momentary Sword Technique, irreversible.

Tampering with a corpse also does not require reversal; one can directly use a Sword Technique like surgery to thoroughly transform it. Faking dead objects is not difficult.

If every household before had this kind of fake corpse, then the motive must be reconsidered.

Killing might not be the goal; the goal is to make certain people suffer a Disappearance.

Then, from the identities of the people who suffered a Disappearance, perhaps the motive can be deduced...

Tang Zhao thought this, wanting to open his mouth to remind this person not to be so focused on closing the case quickly, when a Disciple ran in hurriedly from outside and shouted: "Senior Brother, the next... the next warning letter has arrived!"

The Daoist stood up abruptly, the expression of confidence he had just moments ago vanishing completely, and he barked: "Where is it this time?"

That person panted and said: "Not far... Chun Wangfu!"