Chapter 1 Failure

The sound of failure echoing in their ears was like a bucket of ice water poured over their heads. Even the two Saints and one Ruler, who had seen their share of storms, felt a surge of dread, a sense that "things are about to go very wrong."

Zhao Chenghuang's face instantly turned pale. Failure meant that Guan Ya, Sun Miaomiao, Tianxia Guihuo, and Hongjige would all die.

These were his closest partners, his childhood sweetheart, the network he would rely on for future development.

Zhang Yuanqing's expression froze. The notification that he had "incorrectly identified the killer" almost shattered his Dao heart. All his reasoning and analysis had been overturned, proven wrong.

He couldn't bear the consequences of failure. Guan Ya, Sun Miaomiao, Tianxia Guihuo, and even Hongjige, were his irreplaceable brothers, sisters, and loved ones.

No amount of money could fix this!

The emotional shock momentarily overwhelmed his mind, leaving only one thought: Impossible!

"Ah..." A heavy sigh echoed in the room.

Just as Zhang Yuanqing and Zhao Chenghuang were sinking into despair, Zhai Cai sighed, raised his left hand high, his face solemn and serious, all playfulness gone. He spoke word by word, "I declare, this deduction is invalid!"

As those words fell, the notification sounded again:

[Exorcist Daniel has used the Judgement skill. This deduction is invalid! Daniel will die in three seconds.]

Zhang Yuanqing and Zhao Chenghuang, who had been on the verge of despair, suddenly saw a glimmer of hope.

Hearing the notification, Zhai Cai breathed a sigh of relief, looked at Zhang Yuanqing, and shrugged. "I brought you in, and I'll take you out. Kid, I'm betting my life on you! Try again, and don't let me down."

He could have chosen not to use the skill, abandoning his comrades who had already died in the case and leaving the Ancient Castle Mystery painting.

As a Ruler, he really didn't need to risk his life for a few Saints.

The lives of Saints were like beggars compared to the world's richest man.

But he was a knight! A proud and upright knight!

Zhang Yuanqing looked back at him and nodded silently.

Only then did Zhai Cai close his eyes and fall straight back, turning into a corpse.

That was the price of Judgement!

The room fell silent for a moment. Zhang Yuanqing sat on the edge of the bed as if he lacked the strength to stand, his eyes staring blankly at the floor. Zhao Chenghuang leaned against the wall, his face stern, not saying a word.

How could it not be David? How could it possibly not be David? The question echoed repeatedly in Zhang Yuanqing's mind.

Fu Luan's revelation was "D," and the werewolf's vomit proved that Ya·Lansi had been poisoned with a poison so potent that even a werewolf couldn't withstand it.

And a bottle of poison was found in David's room. Only his room contained poison.

Based on the results of the crime scene investigation, it was almost certain that Ya·Lansi had died from poisoning, and that the poisoning had preceded the fatal wounds to her chest and abdomen.

This didn't require clues; it was the conclusion of the crime scene investigation.

Where had things gone wrong? Had Fu Luan made a mistake? Was there a problem with the crime scene investigation? Was the werewolf's vomiting not caused by poison? Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts were a jumbled mess, a tangled knot.

Time flew by. After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Chenghuang said in a low voice, "I think we should review the case, not just sit here in a daze. If you're thinking, then disregard what I said. If you're wallowing in the setback of failing to identify the killer, then think about the sacrifice of the Knight."

Zhang Yuanqing finally snapped out of his reverie and looked up. "How long until the next nightfall? I wasn't keeping track."

Zhao Chenghuang's voice was serious. "Ten minutes!"

"Ten minutes..." Zhang Yuanqing rubbed his face vigorously. "Including tomorrow, we have forty minutes. But if I die tonight, the deduction will inevitably fail, so we really only have ten minutes. We have to deduce the real killer within ten minutes, so that even if I die, you can still figure out who it is."

Zhao Chenghuang nodded, his heart heavy. "Do you have any ideas?"

Zhang Yuanqing shook his head. "No."

Zhao Chenghuang's expression became even more grave.

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at Zhai Cai's corpse and said, "Now it's just us. I can use the big guns!"

He raised his hand, and his fingertip touched his forehead. A milky-white halo appeared, spreading like water to cover his entire face. Black pigment outlined his eyes and eyebrows.

In Zhao Chenghuang's eyes, the originally honest and upright Yuan Shi Tian Zun visibly became cunning and treacherous.

The White Face!

Zhang Yuanqing looked at his teammate and curled his lips. "I can think better in this state!"

The cunning and treacherous White Face was adept at plotting and scheming. Combined with the layout ability of the Star Observation technique, it was unparalleled.

But Zhang Yuanqing rarely did this because the White Face was unscrupulous and had no bottom line. He would do anything to achieve his goals, and he was afraid that he would do something unforgivable.

So, he usually used it as a mental "buff" to broaden his thinking. Someone skilled at formulating conspiracies must also be skilled at unraveling them.

Zhang Yuanqing sat on the edge of the bed, crossed his legs, and said in a rather gloomy tone, "First, we'll use the process of elimination. Among the six characters, the ones we can completely eliminate are Big Foot Monroe and the family doctor, David. That leaves four suspects: Dharma Master Dong, Sandy, Lun En, and Daniel."

"If David isn't the killer, then all previous deductions have to be overturned. We must have overlooked some key clue."

Zhao Chenghuang said in a low voice, "Sun Miaomiao and Hongjige's rooms can't be opened!"

If any key clues were missing, they would be in those two rooms.

"We don't need to worry about the rooms we can't open. What we need to do is deduce the real killer based on the clues we already have." Zhang Yuanqing curled the corner of his lips. "Among the four suspects, let's assume Lun En is the killer. What motive would he have for killing Ya·Lansi? Can we deduce it from the existing clues?"

Zhao Chenghuang said, "The man-eating instinct of the full moon..."

He glanced at the silver cross that had fallen on the ground and added, "Ya·Lansi is a vampire."

"Then, is Ya·Lansi a vampire?"

"No!"

Zhang Yuanqing's smile widened. "So, we can eliminate Lun En."

Zhao Chenghuang nodded, agreeing with his reasoning.

The clues for the Lun En character didn't contain any irrefutable evidence to support him as the killer. Devouring the organs of the Ancient Castle Master happened after her death.

"Next is Daniel. This exorcist's story line is connected to the werewolf, Lun En. On the night of the full moon, he appeared in Ya·Lansi's room and left a fatal wound on her chest. But Daniel's character clues don't provide a motive for killing Ya·Lansi. The chest wound was inflicted after Ya·Lansi's death, so we can eliminate Daniel as the killer," Zhang Yuanqing said.

Zhao Chenghuang "mm"ed in agreement, "That only leaves Sandy·Lansi and Dharma Master Dong."

"Dharma Master Dong is the only one among the four with a motive for murder. The murder weapon has also been found. He is the most suspicious. If David isn't the killer, then the probability of Dharma Master Dong being the killer is over 90%."

Zhang Yuanqing crossed his legs, and his palm gently tapped the outside of his thigh. The treacherous and cunning face seemed to always carry a sneer. "So, if we assume that Dharma Master Dong is the killer, can we reconstruct the entire course of the event?"

Without waiting for Zhao Chenghuang to speak, he continued to analyze, "Dharma Master Dong had always coveted the witch beneath the Ancient Castle of the Lansi family, wanting to refine her into a puppet or a spirit servant. So, that night, he used an ice pen to kill Ya·Lansi..."

At this point, he paused for a few seconds, and suddenly his eyes lit up. "The ice pen pierced the heart, freezing the wound so that blood didn't flow out in time, which would explain the low amount of blood on her chest. That night happened to be a full moon, and the werewolf was thirsty for blood and couldn't bear the agitation of his bloodlust. So, he saw the Ancient Castle Master as a hunting target. His involvement prevented Dharma Master Dong from finishing the job, so he had to leave the scene."

"The werewolf broke into Ya·Lansi's room and found her dead. He happily started to devour her. The exorcist Daniel heard the noise and came, driving the werewolf away."

"Then, why did Daniel stab the Ancient Castle Master?"

"There are many possibilities. Maybe Ya·Lansi's heart wasn't completely dead after being frozen. Having been eaten, she still had a breath of life left, so Daniel gave her a quick end, piercing her heart with a greatsword and destroying the ice pen."

"Barely reasonable..." Zhao Chenghuang frowned. "I still feel like something's not right."

"What's not right?"

"It might be a preconceived notion, but I remember you saying that Dharma Master Dong only came to the Lansi Ancient Castle after receiving Ya·Lansi's cry for help. Before that, the Ancient Castle Master often heard the sound of cats meowing late at night, which meant that the seal underground had loosened and the witch was gradually awakening. But according to your reasoning, Dharma Master Dong is the mastermind. It feels like the order is wrong."

Zhao Chenghuang tried to think for a moment, and suddenly his eyebrows shot up. "Then, why did the werewolf vomit? If the Ancient Castle Master died from the ice pen, how could the werewolf have vomited up the meat it had eaten?"

Zhang Yuanqing didn't speak. The gloomy and cunning White Face fell silent.

This was why his Dao heart had collapsed earlier. The clues could only be connected if the Ancient Castle Master had died from poison.

If David wasn't the killer, many phenomena couldn't be explained, and the deduction would reach a dead end.

After a brief silence, he said, "David isn't the killer. The failed deduction earlier proved that the Ancient Castle Master didn't die from poisoning. The werewolf's vomiting must have been caused by something else. Maybe it was injured by the exorcist Daniel at the time."

Zhao Chenghuang seemed to have thought of something, and his expression straightened. "I have a way to determine whether the Ancient Castle Master died from poisoning."

With limited time, he strode out of the stench-filled room, quickly rushed up to the second floor, and returned to Ya·Lansi's room.

Zhao Chenghuang stopped in front of the corpse, leaned over, twitched his nose, and forcefully smelled the slightly decaying body.

Zhang Yuanqing, who was following behind, saw this scene and his heart stirred.

A werewolf skill?

Zhao Chenghuang sniffed for more than ten seconds, silently straightened up, walked out of the room, and then went to Tianxia Guihuo's room.

He bypassed Tianxia Guihuo's corpse, picked up the small pottery jar placed on the table, opened it, and took a deep sniff. Holding the pottery jar, Zhao Chenghuang was silent. He remained in this posture for more than ten seconds, then turned his head and said in an extremely solemn and strange tone, "This case is more complicated than we thought...Ya·Lansi's body has the smell of the liquid from the pottery jar. She was poisoned..."

"David isn't the killer!" Zhang Yuanqing's gloomy and cunning face rarely showed some anger. "If she was poisoned, then we should have left here long ago. That poison is a throat-sealer. An ordinary person would die on the spot after drinking it. Did David's poison and Dharma Master Dong's ice pen kill Ya·Lansi at the same time? Did they plan it beforehand?"

"Or did Dharma Master Dong steal David's poison, using the poison first and then the ice pen? The two characters have no connection at all. If that's the case, then the Ancient Castle Mystery is just messing with us!"

"Moreover, if poison was used, there would be no need for the ice pen. It would be like taking off your pants to fart, completely meaningless."

The discovery that Ya·Lansi died from poisoning once again caused Zhang Yuanqing's emotions to spiral out of control.

At this moment, Zhao Chenghuang said with a strange expression, "Tianxia Guihuo is a vampire!"