Qianyuan: My crew comes from the world of anime.

"To be more precise, it was a 'discovery'."

"When I was searching for clues about Mozart's disappearance, I turned the entire site upside down, and there was a body that looked a lot like the one you mentioned, Liszt."

"..."

Luo Tianming fell into a daze again. After a few seconds, he looked at the missionary with a strange emotion and said:

"Then, take us to see this so-called [Liszt]."

-

The group arrived at another small room, which was not far from Schubert's room.

Inside the room, there was a piano that had been prepared beforehand... and the body known as "Liszt" sat quietly on the piano bench.

There was not a trace of unpleasantness; it was as if a skeletal gentleman was sitting in front of a piano, preparing to play a piece of music... However, what was placed on the music stand next to the piano was not sheet music, but a complete lung specimen.

Its bloody freshness made it look as if it had just been pulled from the chest cavity.

Besides blood, Wagner's music was also scattered on the ground.

"..."

This scene is less a murder scene and more an artistic spectacle filled with 'divinity' and 'bloodshed'.

Luo Tianming hardly needed to confirm; Lucy's voice rang in his ears, further supplementing his historical record: Liszt died at the home of his son-in-law Wagner from pneumonia.

"..."

Originally, Luo Tianming had already confirmed that this strange "Liszt" was very likely the real murderer.

But his death left Luo Tianming with a feeling of powerlessness, like punching cotton.

That ghostly figure, just like that, died?

Did he come looking for me on purpose?

Or perhaps... he saw a ghost back then?

These things simply didn't make sense to Luo Tianming; his already chaotic thoughts were stirred up by the death of [Liszt].

He seemed to have grasped a clue, but it wasn't very clear.

What else did he miss?

"...It's still a bit strange,"

"...!"

A voice like that of a kingfisher once again pierced the mist beside Luo Tianming.

Because of his carelessness, Luo Tianming didn't notice Nan Mengya, which led her to accidentally witness the crime scene.

She fought back the urge to vomit and said, "...Captain, I don't know why, but I feel like there's something wrong with this corpse?"

[Bach] frowned somewhat displeased and said:

"What is that child doing here! Get out of here right now... Keep an eye on your people, don't let her come in and ruin the scene again!"

Faced with the roar, Luo Tianming seemed to filter out the noise and chose to ignore it.

He was lost in his intuition...

(Nan Mengya is right... there is indeed something wrong, but she can't put her finger on it, and neither can I.)

Sometimes, it is precisely because Nan Mengya is relatively young and has not yet developed adult thinking that she can discover things that adults easily overlook.

So what made her feel strange?

...It should be said that even the crime scene was strange to her.

Despite the fact that someone had died, instead of feeling any sadness, people were constantly speculating about who the murderer was.

To her, a corpse was just a corpse... there was nothing else mixed with extraneous emotions.

(A corpse is a corpse; don't let emotions get in the way.)

"...!"

As he muttered those words, Luo Tianming suddenly had an epiphany.

He discovered what Nan Mengya found strange...

I must admit that the scene of Liszt's death was indeed very impactful.

But to a high school girl, the corpse of Liszt before her possessed neither 'divinity' nor the historical 'epic' quality it embodied.

It was simply a corpse with a somewhat bizarre death.

That's not all; it should be said that... in all the murders that occurred this time, the victims were nothing more than corpses with bizarre death appearances.

Luo Tianming and the others were all fooled by the illusion of how the 'historical musician' died!

"..."

The thought of it gave him goosebumps.

(Who was the one who initially lured them into this mess?)

(No, we don’t need to worry about that right now... The key is how 'Liszt' died.)

Luo Tianming re-examined the scene and discovered many suspicious points:

Firstly, the scattered musical pieces on the ground and the partially congealed blood... prove that Liszt's death could not have been long ago, at most a few hours.

Lister died while they were conducting their investigation.

At such close range, didn't you make any sound?

Secondly, the ground was too clean, with no footprints, no blood splatter, no trace of it splashing onto anything... It even gave people the illusion that he had 'committed suicide' in the house.

Thirdly, and most suspiciously, the lung that was removed from the music stand was very clean and intact, with no knife marks on it.

Unless one has dissected many corpses, it would be very difficult for an average person to remove a lung so precisely.

Moreover, don't you think this 'gap' seems a bit too big?

If it were simply a matter of removing the lungs and cutting off part of the chest cavity, why would it be necessary to cut all the way down to the chin and even remove the jawbone?

It's not like they're going to dig out the trachea... and this cut seems more like it's covering something up.

"..."

Chapter 122 Cause of Death

The death of the last 'musician' completely overturned Luo Tianming's previous conjectures.

This also made him a suspect: why did the only person who knew about [Liszt] die tragically in a prepared room after he mentioned the name?

Is he deliberately trying to confuse the issue and clear himself of suspicion?

"..."

Only Bach would think that way.

Unfortunately, after almost all of the sect's leaders died, Bach represented the will of the other half of the 'Painted Skin Cult'.

…………

"No matter what!" Bach said impatiently, "Robert Schumann and his entourage must be detained immediately and not allowed to leave until their suspicions are cleared!"

"..."

Luo Tianming didn't seem so passive; he still looked at [Bach] with a nonchalant attitude and said:

"And then what? Let you, the 'murderer,' roam free?"

"By the time I come out again, you will have already prepared all the false evidence to throw mud at me?"

[Bach]: "You're making baseless accusations... What evidence do you have?!"

This is precisely the crux of the matter: neither Luo Tianming nor [Bach] possesses any 'evidence' to prove the other is the murderer.

Without irrefutable evidence, even if they manage to bring down their opponent, the internal backlash from within the sect will fall on them.

Moreover... the 'missionaries' on the scene seemed quite pleased to see this.

Even if Luo Tianming could force Levi and the others to break through, he still couldn't be sure what kind of background this guy had, and he didn't want to expose them to danger.

"..."

Seeing that Luo Tianming seemed to be watching him warily, the missionary also felt that it was not advisable to make them too antagonistic, otherwise, once they tore off their mask, it would turn into a split in the entire Painted Skin Cult.

“How about this,” the missionary declared in a hoarse voice, “you are both suspects. I will confine you to different places, and neither of you will be allowed to leave until the truth is uncovered.”

Luo Tianming was surprised by the result; he subtly raised an eyebrow...

You should know that he and the missionaries were "in cahoots".

The two boarded the same ship in an attempt to prevent others from voting for a new archbishop at an 'alternative concert'.

But the 'judgment' he's made now is clearly too fair and doesn't align with the original terms of the deal between Luo Tianming and him...

This only deepened his suspicions.

On Bach's side, he was even more dissatisfied with the verdict... He believed that he should not be sentenced to the same confinement as Luo Tianming.

However, to be fair... the missionaries first took him away and locked him up next to Schubert's room.

Luo Tianming and the others were taken to Beethoven's room and locked up...

-

At the entrance, to ensure fairness for both sides, Luo Tianming's side was guarded by people brought by [Bach], while the other side was guarded by their own people.

"Humph~"

The guards scoffed, keeping a close watch on him and checking on him every half hour to see if he was still in the room.

Even though he was locked up in such an environment, Luo Tianming showed no signs of anxiety, only a cold gaze fixed on the doorway.

Luo Tianming sneered inwardly:

(If they aren't locked up, how can we let them show their true colors?)

The guards didn't know... they thought they had taken everything from Luo Tianming, but in reality, he had hidden something inconspicuous in the lining of his captain's hat.

That was—a synchronous communication device.

As soon as I put on the headphones, I heard Revy's sarcastic voice:

"What bad luck, Alo~"

"If you take me off the ship, the moment that bastard dares to threaten you, he'll have a hole in his head."

Luo Tianming: "You can kill one person, but do you think you can fight against hundreds?"

Levi: "Then let's fight! The word 'compromise' doesn't exist in my dictionary... So, do you need me to come save you?"

"If you just shout 'Lady Levi, I was wrong' right now, I'll immediately rush in with my two beloved guns to save you."

Luo Tianming: "...Still as awkward as ever, Levi~ I like that about you."

He could almost picture a blush spreading across Revy's wheat-colored face, and thinking this...

Her voice, trying to hide her shyness, came through:

"you you!"

Luo Tianming: "Alright, enough with the flirting... Miaomiao, how's the analysis you gave me?"

Wu Jianmiao: "What do you mean by 'flirting'? You just want to flirt with someone else, don't you?"

Hehe~~

Nan Mengya's laughter came through the earphones; she was locked in a different room from Luo Tianming.

Luo Tianming: "Stop joking, Miaomiao. I deliberately got myself quarantined and locked up so I could find an opportunity to confirm with you, right?"

"What did the analysis of the blood sample of Schubert that I sent over reveal?"

"..."

Wu Jianmiao was silent at first... then sighed and said, "I have to admit, you did find me something quite interesting. Guess what I found in the blood sample?"

"His blood mercury content exceeds 20000 micrograms per 100 milliliters. Do you know what that means?"

Luo Tianming: "What?"