No. 65: The Counterattack of the Lingering Shadow (4)

  We walked out of the time gate smoothly and entered the narrow mountain cave fork again.

  During the boring time trapped in Shishu Guan, I had already handed the map to Young Master Yu Ye for him to take a look. After he took a look, he ruthlessly pointed out that the route I chose was basically nonsense and completely suicidal, so now we are following his newly defined route. No choice, after all, he is from Tianjing Gate, and it's more reliable to follow someone from Tianjing Gate to deal with Tianjing Gate's mechanisms.

  As expected, after walking a short distance, I didn't encounter any traps. My heart slightly calmed down, and my mind started to think about all sorts of things again.

  "Alas, we finally entered this secret place, but nothing was found out, nor did I know that Ren Ping Sheng had turned the monks of Baima Temple upside down, what was the intention." I sighed and forgot that my own life was still in danger.

  The Young Master of the Night spoke in a low voice: "So you're curious about this? I would have told you earlier if I had known. It's nothing much, we've already figured it out. Although it was just speculation, but now that we've seen Ren Ping Sheng, it's no longer speculation, but can be determined. So, we must get out smoothly."

  "What? Have you figured it out? What have you figured out?"

  In the time it took for me to be caught, they had already secretly figured everything out.

  "Yes. In fact, among them, you have made great contributions. Because you figured out the method of the crime, so the range of suspects has been narrowed down to a very small extent. To be able to do this, there must be a large organization behind it, and among these organizations, Tianjingmen is the most suspicious."

  The dark night suddenly grasped my hand and dragged me into a narrow alley to the right, several sharp arrows shot down from the eaves, nailing the spot where we had just stood.

  I didn't care about that arrow at all, I felt like there was a night in, these things are basically useless now. So I stared straight at him and said: "You continue to talk!"

  He let out a sigh of relief, seemingly a bit helpless: "Really, we haven't escaped danger yet, don't be too excessive..."

  He looked at me with eager eyes, shook his head, and then pulled me around the arrow to walk back on the original road.

  "We were suspicious from the start, but after meeting Su Li Zhen at Baima Temple in the afternoon, he told us some things, so we almost immediately determined that this was done by Tianjingmen."

  Su Lizhen was born intelligent, but he had a congenital deficiency in his body and had been weak since birth due to an illness he contracted from his mother's womb. Therefore, he had a special talent, which was that he had extremely in-depth research on medicinal drugs, probably what people often call "a doctor who has become one through long illness."

  Yè looked at me with a glance, seeing my serious expression, and surprisingly, there was a hint of smile in his eyes. "He discovered the traces of the special medicine on the first day he investigated the White Horse Temple, so his approach to solving the case was directly based on this medicine."

  Medicine! This coincides with my idea. I fell into deep thought. Yes, during the investigation process, different people will have different ways of thinking. If we can combine these different ways of thinking and coordinate them properly, the case investigation will make rapid progress. This is the advantage of joint investigation.

  "As a result, Su Libai surprisingly discovered that the White Horse Temple had used an incredible anesthetic based on some residual traces left at the scene. He still hasn't figured out how to make this anesthetic, but he has basically understood its effects, which are almost exactly as you guessed."

  "It turns out that Lord Su was at the White Horse Temple and told you about this." I couldn't help but feel a little admiration for this frail young official; if he had figured out the function of the anesthetic, following this train of thought to crack the case wouldn't be impossible.

  "It's true. If it's confirmed that the perpetrator of the White Horse Temple incident used a hypnotic drug, and an extremely high-end one at that, then there's someone whose suspicion can be said to have reached its peak. This person I know very well, if we're talking about concocting medicine, especially poisonous ones, I'm afraid no one in this world can surpass him."

  The one referred to at night must be Ren Pingsheng. Ren Pingsheng in this era can easily test the characteristics of cyanide poisoning and even extract hydrocyanic acid, which is already impossible for anyone in the world to surpass. So, if the person who designed this situation was Ren Pingsheng, then everything seems logical and reasonable.

  But why did he go to such great lengths? What was the purpose of the White Horse Temple case?

  The Young Master of the Night saw that I was perplexed and revealed a secretly pleased expression. Therefore, he continued to speak, intentionally increasing my confusion.

  "Do you remember Bai Qianfan, the Governor of Mizhou?"

  I nodded. This gentleman is the highest-ranking official among the ten detectives, and this Mr. Bai has a strong personality. He is the only one who didn't go to the White Horse Temple for on-site investigation.

  "Master Bai Qianfan never believed in ghosts and gods, so he directly drew a conclusion that this was something done by humans. Since it was done by humans, then the monks of the temple must have been taken away by someone. Therefore, he skipped investigating the method of the crime and went straight to pursuing one thing: how could so many people be taken out of White Horse Temple and hidden or buried somewhere."

  I couldn't help but applaud. Indeed, this is also a way of thinking! If we found the monks at White Horse Temple and asked them what happened that day, wouldn't everything become clear?

  "So, at dawn today, Bai Qianfan found all the monks of Baima Temple, and they were all alive."

  I was shocked and found it? That is to say, the case was solved?

  However, these monks did not know why they were kidnapped. What they said confirmed your idea. Indeed, all the laymen present at the scene were poisoned and fainted, and most of the monks lost their ability to resist. However, in order to achieve this goal, the dose of the anesthetic had to be precisely controlled, so the martial monks who practiced qigong to defend themselves all retained their strength to fight back. This is why there were signs of fighting at the scene.

  The perpetrators were a group of black-clad masked men, swift and agile, with exceptional martial arts skills. After capturing and binding the monks, they stuffed them into a large cargo vehicle outside the temple, transporting them to an unknown cave for hiding, where guards were stationed to watch over them and provide food and drink. They remained there until today when they were rescued by Lord Bai Qianfan.

  So, although they rescued the monks, they didn't get any valuable information.

  "Sigh?" I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

  "Information is available, it's just a matter of whether you pay attention or not." The corner of Ye's mouth slightly curled up, "Everything the monks said was almost within our expectations, except for one thing. After they were captured, they were stripped of their monk robes and inspected by the black-clad men."

  "So you're looking for someone?" I was taken aback.

  Bai Daren rescued the monks and nuns, and when the abbot was taking roll call, he found that three people were missing. Ye Xing looked at me with great interest, "What do you think is going on here?"

  It's these three people! I suddenly lit up in my heart. What Li Shimin cares about is these three people! What the Tianjing Gate wants is also these three people!

  The author's idle chatter

  Since I started writing this article, the author's reading assignments have mostly become reasoning. The two days of reading were Miike Kazuyo's "Imitation Offender", which is really great, and I love it more than all the previous books I've read. Strongly recommended, interested readers can also take a look, you won't be disappointed~！

  Perhaps the most brilliant part of it is not in the reasoning, but a detective novel that can shape every character into an extremely three-dimensional one while telling a story that makes people reflect deeply from the bottom of their hearts. The thick three-volume book has no meaningless segment and no meaningless sentence. A female writer, delicate and logically rigorous at the same time, with words that have a sharpness and depth like roots growing deep into the earth, is truly fascinating.

  Uh? Didn't I take too much medicine today...