Volume 3, Chapter 320 – Yes, She Killed Herself

“This is what the family head calls a suicide?”

Wei Qingyu stepped forward, studying Chi Chun’s body with an expression of open curiosity.

“This young lady had quite a particular way of going about it.”

She turned to Lingxiao Sword Sect’s Lu Guan. “What does Elder Lu make of it?”

“Hmph. What do I make of it?” Lu Guan let out a cold snort. “Anyone with even a passing familiarity with sword cultivators can see that this girl’s heart meridian was detonated by sword qi.”

“Sword qi moving from the inside out. That is the only way a wound like this is formed.”

“Ha. Even a sword cultivator choosing to sever their own heart meridian would rarely use something this crude.”

“After all, this manner of death is… rather unsightly.”

Wei Qingyu said lightly, “Elder Lu makes a fair point. This is not my area of expertise. All I can say is that based on what I can observe, the girl died around the third watch of last night.”

“I wonder whether Elder Lu has noticed anything else.”

Lu Guan continued, “Ha. To take one’s life by such a blunt method, this girl’s talent in the sword was truly…”

Lu Guan’s words stopped short.

“What is it?” Wei Qingyu pressed on. “Has Elder Lu stopped doubting what the family head said?”

“Just moments ago, Elder Lu seemed quite certain the family head had simply found a convenient scapegoat.”

“Why the change of tone now?”

Lu Guan’s face remained composed, but his eyes had gone completely dark.

What lay before him could not possibly be a suicide. Not by any stretch.

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Whether it was him, Chi Jingwen, or Wei Qingyu standing in front of him, all three of them knew this with absolute certainty.

Just then, one of the younger Lingxiao disciples got a clear look at Chi Chun’s face. He turned to the heavyset boy beside him with a look of surprise. “Brother Chi Zhong, isn’t that your cousin? I’ve seen her with you before.”

“She was a sword cultivator?”

“How come you never mentioned that, Brother Chi Zhong?”

A flicker of shock crossed Chi Zhong’s eyes, quickly buried beneath a strained smile. “She is my cousin, yes, but we were never particularly close. I didn’t know much about her cultivation.”

He had barely finished explaining when a chill swept over him from head to toe.

He looked up to find Lu Guan letting his gaze drift past him. Just once. That single glance alone was enough to make him feel as though he had been dropped into a pit of ice.

Lu Guan looked away just as quickly.

Under other circumstances, he might have been pleased to catch Chi Jingwen in a lie.

But after examining the girl’s body more carefully, he realized things were not so simple.

This could be a trap. A trap aimed at Lingxiao Sword Sect.

With a creeping unease in his chest, Lu Guan crouched beside the body and extended a thread of sword qi from his fingertip, probing slowly.

He very much hoped he had been wrong in his earlier read.

But the truth disappointed him again.

The moment his sword qi entered the wound, something resonated, as though a vibration had been triggered.

A familiar sword qi answered his, humming in recognition.

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This girl called Chi Chun had died under Lingxiao Sword Sect’s sword qi.

Someone had driven their sword qi into her body beforehand, hiding it within her heart meridian, then detonated it fully when no one was watching. The force tore outward from the inside, blowing open her chest.

The method was designed to mimic the look of a self-severed heart meridian.

It was convincing enough to fool an ordinary cultivator. But it stood absolutely no chance of deceiving Chi Jingwen, that old fox, nor Wei Qingyu, an Inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

They had done this deliberately.

Lu Guan straightened up. He looked at Chi Jingwen, his eyes brimming with lethal sword intent. “Family Head Chi. What is the meaning of this?”

Even the Lingxiao disciples who had been watching with idle curiosity sensed something was wrong.

Chi Jingwen’s face remained in that same easy, unhurried smile. “Elder Lu, as I said, Chi Chun died by suicide out of guilt.”

“It was you who doubted my judgment.”

“Since you did not believe me, I followed Inspector Wei’s suggestion and allowed you to examine the body yourself.”

“So tell me, Elder Lu. Did you find anything amiss? Did Chi Chun die by suicide or not?”

Wei Qingyu added, “Elder Lu is well-versed in the sword path. Surely you can tell at a glance how Chi Chun died?”

Lu Guan’s expression grew strained.

Chi Jingwen and Wei Qingyu were playing a duet, singing him straight into a pit they had dug together.

If Chi Chun’s death was a suicide, the Chi family gave Lingxiao Sword Sect a way out with their dignity intact.

If it was not a suicide, then Lingxiao Sword Sect had been handed grace and thrown it back in their faces.

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Lu Guan could not work out how any of this had come to pass.

The technique used to kill Chi Chun was called the Sword Concealment Art. It was a secret transmission of Lingxiao Sword Sect, one so vicious that even the majority of Lingxiao disciples had never heard of it.

Within the sect, there were only two lineages to which this technique had ever been passed down.

The first was Lu Guan’s own line, the direct transmission of the sect master.

The second was the two personal disciples of Immortal Venerable Qingzhi.

Which meant that here in Beihe Commandery, the only two people who knew this technique were Lu Guan himself and Song Shixuan.

When someone had just identified Chi Chun as Chi Zhong’s cousin, Lu Guan had briefly suspected Chi Zhong of being the killer.

But Chi Zhong could not possibly have had access to a secret technique of this level.

So after ruling himself out, the only person left with both motive and the means to do this was Song Shixuan.

In that moment, Lu Guan’s frustration with Song Shixuan reached its absolute limit.

He turned his head, letting his gaze cut coldly toward Song Shutao.

Dan it. So it really was you.

And you stood there putting on that look of pure ignorance like you knew nothing at all.

Song Shixuan, are you really not afraid of dying in some woman’s bed one day?

Song Shutao felt the heat of Lu Guan’s fury.

She felt somewhat confused.

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Why is Elder Lu so angry? Is he blaming me for not telling him sooner?

Right. Yesterday I did see this girl. She was moving in a hurry, behaving suspiciously. It was obvious she was up to no good. I should have told him about it sooner.

With that thought, Song Shutao spoke up. “Yesterday, I saw this girl, on my way to find the Chi family’s second young miss.”

“She was acting strangely, so I pressed her until she told me where the second young miss was. I never imagined things would end up like this.”

Chi Jingwen heard this and glanced at Song Shutao with a thoughtful look. “Oh. Is that so.”

Lu Guan listened and felt the urge to cut something down.

Song Shixuan. What exactly have you been doing?

You see a pretty girl and your brain stops working?

If you liked that girl so much, was there no way to go about it properly?

Once Chi Xiyan came through the door, never mind Chi Muxue alone. The entire Chi family would have been yours.

How could you not see something that simple?

“Elder Lu.” Wei Qingyu turned to him. “Have you reached a conclusion?”

Lu Guan drew a long breath. Through gritted teeth, he said, “The family head’s judgment stands. Chi Chun died by suicide. She used her sword qi to detonate her own heart meridian.”

Chi Chun’s death was a suicide. Whatever it took, it had to be a suicide.

This particular burden of blame could not be allowed to attach itself to Lingxiao Sword Sect.

Chi Jingwen sat composed in the head seat, a flicker of contempt passing through his eyes.