The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 300 Bones
Yin Suqin and Cao Hanyan, suppressing their nausea, used wooden sticks to pry out the skeleton, then dragged out a table from the shed where corpses were kept and placed the skeleton on it.

The corpse had been in this pit for an unknown amount of time, turning into a pool of black water and white bones, with not a trace of flesh remaining. It was layered several times over, and only Li Miao could identify the skeleton based on the limited data he had recorded back then.

Cao Hanyan also understood Li Miao's meaning and thus deduced the result. When the bones were laid out, the two of them looked at them by the firelight and nodded to each other—they were indeed exactly the same as the records in the case file.

I heard the news at noon, rushed over in the afternoon and spent half the day investigating, and only found something strange in the evening. It turned out that the person in question was already dead.

Yin Suqin murmured, "Could it be that this matter is just a folk tale?"

“No.” Cao Hanyan shook her head.

"Let's set aside the question of whether she knows martial arts for now. Her unknown origins, the disappearance of the caravan, and her inexplicable death here are still unexplained."

He turned to look at Li Miao and said in a low voice, "The most important issue now is to determine when Xue Bangzhu died."

Xue Bangzhu's entire family was wiped out twenty years ago. Thirteen years ago, he moved to the Yizhuang (mortuary) and disappeared five years ago. After that, things started happening at the Yizhuang, and it was around this time that caravans disappeared there.

Given the manner of Xue Bangzhu's death, no one would believe that she died of old age.

Once the time of Xue Bangzhu's death is determined, we can distinguish which of these events belong to her and which belong to the "murderer." This matter ultimately rests with Li Miao, the Imperial Guard.

Li Miao smiled and said, "Judging from the degree of decomposition of this corpse alone, it could be said to be five, ten, or twenty years old."

He casually drew the long sword from Zheng Yi's waist, lifted Xue Bangzhu's spine and brought it close to his eyes, saying as he looked at it.

"The person who killed her was hiding her body. To prevent the smell from escaping, the pit was carefully lined with oiled paper and sealed with wax. The body fermented and rotted inside, without being exposed to wind and rain. The bones were very clean, and you couldn't tell the difference even if the bodies were a few years apart."

"but--"

Li Miao flicked the sword's edge, and the white spine fell back onto the table, perfectly positioned.

"We can still see three things."

"Firstly, her spine was badly worn down. When she died, she was an elderly woman with a hunched back, at least around sixty years old. So she was still alive at least before she was moved to this mortuary."

"Secondly, she is skilled in martial arts, and her skills are quite good. Her bones, especially her hand bones, are much stronger than those of ordinary people, indicating that she has been trained and her skills are considerable."

Thirdly—

With a wave of his hand, Li Miao's longsword clattered back to Zheng Yi's waist. He looked at Zheng Yi and said...

"She's probably the person we're looking for."

Zheng Yi's expression suddenly changed, and she asked urgently, "What is the basis for your statement, sir?"

"Height".

Li Miao replied.

“When the yamen measured her body, she must have been over forty years old, and her figure was somewhat out of shape, so I didn’t draw any conclusions. Now that the skin and flesh are gone, it’s much clearer to see her.”

"I straightened her spine, and now compare her to yourself. Shoulder width, height, arm length, hip width—aren't they exactly the same?"

“The deformed and worn marks on her hand bones also show that her most common way of holding a sword is exactly the same as yours.”

"Disguise can only affect the skin and flesh, not the bones."

Li Miao gestured.

"Let's go see him."

"This is the fellow disciple you've been looking for."

Zheng Yi was stunned and speechless.

She wouldn't question Li Miao. Within her knowledge, Li Miao was undoubtedly the most skilled martial artist and the one who had killed the most people in the world. And when it came to understanding the human body, no one in Da Shuo could surpass him; there was no more authoritative coroner than Li Miao. She considered many possibilities.

When she saw her fellow disciples, she had imagined all sorts of scenarios: they might embrace and weep, they might be moved to tears, or they might even draw their swords against each other.

But she never imagined she would see a skeleton submerged in black water.

After a long while, she moved her feet and slowly walked to the table, picked up the skull with both hands, and held it up in front of her. Looking at the two dark holes, she let out a long breath.

She now understood why she hadn't considered the possibility of her fellow disciples from Penglai turning their swords against her, and why Li Miao had to remind her—because she subconsciously didn't want to admit it.

She had lost her home and decided to risk everything to take revenge on Yingzhou. But taking revenge at all costs was far more difficult than it sounded.

At least she doesn't have that kind of mentality.

Subconsciously, she was still searching for family, companions, and a sense of belonging. So much so that she subconsciously ignored the possibility that her fellow disciples in Penglai might not recognize her, or that they might already be dead.

Li Miao showed her these bones to tell her—

Stop daydreaming.

Revenge won't be like in a novel, where you meet companions, search for family, and finally plunge that sword into the enemy's chest, dying with a smile.

She will gain nothing in this process, only constantly lose. The best outcome would be to die with Yingzhou, turning into a handful of dust.

If you don't have this awareness, don't talk about revenge.

After a long while, Zheng Yi slowly put the skull back in its original position, took a deep breath, gripped the hilt of the sword tightly, and turned to look at Li Miao.

"Sir, now that she is dead, there's no point in lingering here any longer. Let's go to the next place—"

Li Miao interrupted her.

"Not urgent."

he laughed.

"Just because someone is dead doesn't mean we can't find anything useful. And don't you think something's a little strange?"

Li Miao spoke slowly and deliberately.

"Since she escaped from Penglai, she must have reached the Celestial Realm, so how could 'Bu Liuxing' survive after her entire clan was wiped out?"

"Besides, celestial beings all possess some characteristics of being incorruptible even when they see a god; they won't show signs of aging until they're completely exhausted. But her spine is severely worn down; she had already started to hunch over before she died—where did her spiritual realm go?"

"How could the merchant family who lost the body push a celestial being in his sixties to the ground?"

"Her bones were clearly broken before she died. Who could have done that to her, and why would they seal up her body?"

Li Miao twirled his fingers, paused for a moment, and then said finally.

"The most crucial point is that she was probably still alive when she was in the mortuary, so those missing corpses were most likely her doing—what would she need so many corpses for?"

Li Miao smiled.

"The higher the martial arts skill, the more evil things there are. Things like transferring power, possessing a body, grafting limbs, and growing flesh and blood are things that ordinary martial artists would never dare to think about."

"Xue Bangzhu has never left Kaifeng since he arrived. The method that requires a corpse is most likely a legacy of Penglai. And Penglai and Yingzhou share the same origin."

"If we find out the details of her methods, we can probably deduce some of the foundations of Yingzhou."

"Isn't this worth investigating?"

(End of this chapter)