Deep darkness descended upon the ancient castle, robbing everyone of their vision. Zhang Yuanqing was shocked to discover that the Night Wanderer's talent for piercing the darkness had lost its effect at this moment. All he could see was pitch blackness.
The "Night" was not a night in the conventional sense, but a mandatory seal, sealing all skills, including passive ones.
He instinctively leaned against the wall, adopting a defensive posture, while simultaneously opening his inventory... only to remember that the inventory and attribute interface were restricted and could not be opened.
"Then I can only rely on luck. It's not me who dies, it's not me..." he muttered in his heart, almost saying, "God bless, Buddha bless."
It wasn't that Zhang Yuanqing was afraid of death, but he felt that only he could ensure the case was solved if he lived. He didn't trust anyone else.
There was no movement in the darkness. Time passed quietly. After two or three minutes, the night receded, light poured in, and the vision changed from pitch black to azure, and then to dawn.
"Who died?" Zhang Yuanqing quickly looked around.
Sun Miaomiao, Zhao Chenghuang, Zhai Cai, Tianxia Guihuo... the faces of his teammates came into view one by one. Finally, his gaze fell on the floor.
Hongjige lay stiffly on the ground, his body rigid. He had died in the night.
It was Hongjige who died... a stroke of good luck in misfortune... The big stone in Zhang Yuanqing's heart fell, and instead of being sad, he was relieved.
At this time, Zhai Cai and others also discovered that Hongjige had fallen in the night, and they all showed expressions of "thank goodness."
The sacrifice of Hongjige was equivalent to no one dying, zero loss.
Zhai Cai quickly approached and squatted down to examine him. He found that Hongjige had no wounds on his body, and his expression was peaceful, as if he had no regrets in dying.
"Fortunately, the deceased does not affect the overall situation!" The Single Transmission Knight breathed a sigh of relief first, and then his face became solemn: "I don't think the murderer who killed the castle owner was the witch, because the witch's method of killing is mandatory death. The castle owner has two fatal wounds."
"Not necessarily!" Tianxia Guihuo was the first to object: "Yalansi was eaten internally while unconscious or dead. If she died in advance from the witch's revenge, wouldn't it be reasonable?"
The two looked at each other. Zhai Cai frowned and looked at Zhang Yuanqing: "What do you think?"
"Based on the current situation, there are two directions for investigation. One, the witch is the murderer, and our task is to find her real name. Two, the murderer is among us. The witch's existence is a huge threat, increasing the difficulty of solving the case, but she is not the murderer."
Zhang Yuanqing's logic was clear. He pointed to the open door and said, "Only Dong Fashi can open Dong Fashi's door. That is to say, Hongjige's room can never be opened again. The clues belonging to him are lost forever."
"The most important thing now is not to discuss who the murderer is, but to use the points at hand to obtain clues for the team as much as possible."
With that, he pushed open the door to Dong Fashi's room: "Let's see what clues are inside first."
The team members followed him into the room. The tables, chairs, and beds in the room were simple and unique to the Middle Ages. After searching, they found a black wooden box in the room; a letter from Yalansi to Dong Fashi; a piece of parchment paper depicting complex runes.
The content of the letter was consistent with Zhang Yuanqing's character information. It was a letter asking for help.
Zhang Yuanqing stared at the parchment paper, his brow furrowing slowly: "It seems to be a Spirit Puppet Refining Spirit Inscription formation. It's different from the traditional Spirit Inscriptions. It should be an ancient cultivator's formation diagram created based on Spirit Inscriptions... I seem to understand why Dong Fashi coveted the witch sealed by the Lansi family. The witch has high spirituality and is an extremely Yin body, a natural, top-quality Spirit Puppet."
Zhai Cai looked him up and down: "You're not a Night Wanderer. How do you know this is a Spirit Formation Diagram!"
Zhang Yuanqing's expression remained unchanged: "Knowledge can be learned, and experience can be accumulated."
As he spoke, he handed the parchment paper to Sun Miaomiao, adopting a pose that implied a professional assessment.
"It is indeed a formation diagram derived from Spirit Inscriptions." Sun Miaomiao gave a pretentious appraisal.
Zhang Yuanqing didn't want to dwell on the formation diagram. He opened the wooden box. Inside the wooden box lay an ice-sculpted pen. Based on the pen rest embedded in the bottom of the box, there should have been two ice pens in the box.
One of the pens was missing.
At this moment, a prompt sounded in Zhang Yuanqing's ear:
[Ding! Your character's exclusive skill has been activated!]
[Fu Pin Pen: Can divine, requires 60 points per use]
Character-exclusive skill... Zhang Yuanqing immediately recalled Dong Fashi's character information, a mage skilled in Fu Luan. In addition, he had felt strange before, Dong Fashi's character information had a remark: Publicly available!
Since there is "Publicly available," there must be "Not publicly available." Sure enough, the guess was confirmed.
"Oh, an ice-sculpted pen..." Sun Miaomiao approached, "Does it have item attributes?"
Zhang Yuanqing picked up the pen, waited a few seconds, and shook his head: "No item information."
"I'm speechless." Sun Miaomiao took the ice pen, and after a few seconds, put the pen back in the box somewhat dejectedly: "Sure enough, there's no information. Then what's the use of this pen? Your room has no clues at all."
Zhai Cai's eyes suddenly sharpened: "Who said there are no clues? Where's the other pen?"
Tianxia Guihuo suddenly woke up, and said urgently: "Remember the fatal wound on the castle owner's chest? I said at the time that the color of the blood was wrong, as if it had been diluted with water."
Sun Miaomiao and Zhao Chenghuang instantly reacted. "Is Dong Fashi the murderer?"
Sun Miaomiao scrutinized Zhang Yuanqing and reasoned: "The wound on the castle owner's chest was caused by the ice pen. That pen melted, so the blood on the chest seemed to have been diluted."
Zhao Chenghuang nodded: "The castle owner wrote in his notes that Dong Tianshi coveted the Lansi family's forbidden secret. He has a motive for the murder."
Everyone looked at Zhang Yuanqing.
Unable to refute... Zhang Yuanqing thought carefully for a moment and found that Dong Fashi indeed had the motive and the ability, plus there was physical evidence.
Ya Lansi's death was difficult to say was unrelated to Dong Fashi.
At this time, Zhai Cai said: "But the wound on the deceased's chest looked more like it was caused by a sharp weapon such as a large sword. An ice pen couldn't create such a wound."
Tianxia Guihuo's excitement decreased slightly. After recalling it, he nodded: "That's true. The wound on the deceased's chest was caused by two kinds of weapons. Now that the ice pen has been found, there is no large sword in Dong Fashi's room. That is to say, there is another suspect."