“Dying message?” Zu An frowned.

Vice Magistrate Pang Chun stepped in to elaborate. “The deceased, Yang Wei, managed to write out a word, ‘Zu’, before he passed away. Not only did you get into a conflict with him two days ago in the academy, there’s also no one else who goes by the surname ‘Zu’ in the entire Brightmoon City. It seems that the person that he’s referring to in his final message is none other than you.”

Even Chu Zhongtian found himself flustered at the revelation of Yang Wei’s dying message, but Zu An forced himself to remain composed. It was exactly at times like this that he couldn’t panic. He had seen far too many dramas where the plaintiff just kept crying ‘I’m being framed’ and ‘I’m innocent’ to know that it was futile to do so.

He pondered over the matter for some time before saying, “There should be a motive behind the murder. I have no reason to kill Yang Wei.”

“No reason? You came into conflict with Yang Wei in the academy, and there are several hundred people who can testify to that! You harbored hatred in your heart, and so you assassinated my husband for that. You’re a vile man through and through!” Yang Wei’s wife roared at Zu An, her face warped with anger.

“Indeed, I did come into conflict with Yang Wei, but it was just a squabble regarding arithmetic—which I won, by the way. Principal Jiang even appointed me as the stand-in arithmetic teacher to replace him. On the other hand, Yang Wei was thoroughly disgraced in public and fired from the academy. In other words, it was a complete victory for me. What reason would I have to make a move on an utter loser? It’s far more likely for Yang Wei to make an attempt on my life than the reverse,” replied Zu An.

Xie Yi and Pang Chun looked at one another and nodded in agreement. Indeed, there was no way the original motive made sense.

Chu Zhongtian regarded Zu An in astonishment. 

All along, he had thought of his son-in-law as someone with a reckless personality who spouted anything that came to his mind. His impression of Zu An hadn’t changed much despite his outstanding performance in the dueling ring. After all, Zu An was only at the third rank in terms of cultivation, which was commonplace in the Chu clan.

However, Zu An’s ability to analyze the root of the issue here truly impressed him. He realized that he and his wife might have had a wrong impression of Zu An all this while.

It was at this moment that Mei Chaofeng, who had been watching quietly from the side, stepped forward and said, “That’s hard to say. We all witnessed Zu An’s vindictiveness in the dueling ring yesterday. Yuan Wenji had only offended him, but he hacked off his arm and crippled his ki core. It’s fully in line with Zu An’s character for him to thoroughly exact vengeance on Lord Yang after the conflict they had with one another.”

Since it wasn’t convenient for Shi Kun to participate in the trial, Mei Chaofeng had no choice but to intervene.

His words were like a pillar of support for Yang Wei’s wife, and she immediately leaned on it. “Right, right! That must be the case! Milords, please redress my grievances! My husband died a tragic death.”

Xie Yi and Pang Chun frowned, at a loss as to how to handle this suddenly-complex situation.

Sang Hong also joined in as well. “Zu An, how do you explain the dying message Lord Yang left behind, then?”

“How are you so certain that Lord Yang was the one who left that word behind? Just think about it. If I were the murderer, would I allow my victim to write my name out?” replied Zu An.

Sang Hong smiled but kept quiet. It was beneath him to join the debate directly. He was just pointing out the crux of the matter. It was up to Xie Yi and Pang Chun to handle the case on his behalf.

As expected, Pang Chun immediately spoke up. “Lord Yang’s hands were hiding the word when we found him. It’s only normal for the murderer to have missed it.”

Zu An burst into laughter. “If I may ask, which murderer would be so careless? Leaving his victim with a dying breath would be one thing, but to actually let his victim leave a dying message without noticing? Does that even make sense to you?”

The gathered crowd began whispering amongst themselves, discussing the case. Both sides had made compelling arguments.

“Silence!” Xie Yi smacked the wooden block on the table. “Zu An, what you said makes sense, but all of the evidence points to you at the moment. Without a doubt, you’re the prime suspect. If we’re unable to find any other evidence, I’m afraid that it would be hard to vindicate you.”

“If I may ask, when did Lord Yang die?” asked Chu Zhongtian.

“Brightmoon Duke. According to the autopsy report, he died last night, between the zi hour to the chou hour.”[1]

“Then there’s no way it could be Ah Zu. He was resting in his residence last night. Also, due to several past incidents, I have allocated several guards to protect him around the clock. There’s no way he could have slipped past my notice.”

“I see.” Xie Yi heaved a sigh of relief. If Zu An had an alibi, it would make things far more straightforward. However, just as Xie Yi was about to make his judgment, a voice suddenly called out.

“If I recall correctly, the testimony provided by the plaintiff’s kin can only be used as reference, and not absolute evidence. Am I correct?” said Shi Kun.

Naturally, this had been part of their considerations while they were concocting this scheme.

His words caused Xie Yi to frown. There was indeed such a rule, since there was a good chance that family members would try to cover for one another.

Chu Zhongtian turned to Shi Kun. “Are you claiming that I’m spouting falsehoods here?” he uttered coldly.

“Brightmoon Duke, please pardon me. I would never doubt your character. However, given how many people there are in the Chu Estate, there’s no way you could keep track of everyone’s whereabouts. Furthermore, Zu An displayed a formidable movement skill that could overwhelm even a fifth rank cultivator in the dueling ring yesterday. With that, it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to circumvent the guards in the estate if he truly intended to sneak out.”

Chu Zhongtian opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out.

Shi Kun’s arguments were perfectly logical, leaving Chu Zhongtian with no room to counter. The crowd immediately trained suspicious looks on Zu An.

Zu An turned around to look at Shi Kun and said, “Young master Shi, you’re well-prepared. It almost looks like you were the one who prepared this scheme to frame me.”

“I’m just a concerned civilian. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with me stating my opinion, is there?” replied Shi Kun with a smile.

Vice Magistrate Pang Chun finally spoke up. “Zu An, what else do you have to say for yourself?”

Zu An pondered for a moment before making a request. “I’d like to visit the murder scene.”

May all of the great detectives of the world bless me in this moment. Please don’t let those detective dramas I’ve watched in my previous life—be it Justice Bao, Di Renjie, Sherlock Holmes, or Detective Conan—be in vain. Otherwise, I might really get done in here. 

“There’s no need for you to head over to the scene personally,” replied Xie Yi. 

He gestured to a subordinate. After a moment, someone brought in an artifact that resembled a mirror. Xie Yi infused his ki into it, and an image appeared on the surface of the mirror.

It was the scene of Yang Wei’s dead body!

Zu An was amazed by the technologies this world had to offer. They had actually created their own equivalent of a camera, allowing them to store and display images. It seemed the runemasters in this world were far more formidable than he had thought.

Zu An carefully examined the murder scene, and soon, a smile surfaced on his lips. “Well, well! It looks like justice does exist in this world after all!”

“What do you mean?” asked Xie Yi in confusion.

The others on the court were equally bewildered. Even Shi Kun frowned, wondering if they had accidentally messed up.

Zu An pointed to the bloody words in the image and explained, “The dying message left behind by Lord Yang was written with his right hand. However, Lord Yang is left-handed. The true murderer seems to be unaware of that, resulting in this careless mistake.”

“Left-handed?” Pang Chun was taken aback. “I’ve known Lord Yang for many years, but I’ve never known him to be left-handed.”

“When I attended Yang Wei’s arithmetic class, he wrote with his right hand. However, when the two of us began our competition, he subconsciously switched to his left hand as he became more nervous. From this, it should be clear that his dominant hand is his left hand. However, I reckon that most people are oblivious to that fact, which is also why the true murderer erred in this case.

“When a man tries to leave behind an important message with his final ounce of strength, there is no way he would deliberately go through the trouble of using his non-dominant hand. Yet, Yang Wei’s dying message was written with his right hand. This should prove that the dying message was fabricated by the true murderer.”

Xie Yi frowned at those words. He turned to Yang Wei’s wife and asked, “Is Lord Yang left-handed?”

The middle-aged woman was befuddled by the current turn of events, but she still nodded anyway. “My husband is indeed left-handed. It’s out of fear of being mocked that he tries to use his right hand in public. However, from time to time, he would still subconsciously resort to using his left.”

A huge ruckus broke out as soon as she spoke those words. Even Shi Kun was shaken. How could he have known that they would have made such a mistake? 

Realizing that things were turning awry, Mei Chaofeng’s face warped in shock, and he hurriedly chimed in, “Zu An might be using this fact to take us for a ride! He could have intentionally faked the dying message in such a way to absolve himself of blame!”

Zu An shook his head and glanced at Mei Chaofeng with a look of ridicule. “You must have forgotten to bring your brain out with you today. Do I look like I’m dumb enough to leave my name at the crime scene and turn myself into the prime suspect?”

Xie Yi nodded in agreement. “What Zu An says makes sense. With the doubts surrounding this dying message from Lord Yang, there isn’t any concrete evidence to prove that he’s the murderer anymore. Lord Pang, I’m counting on you to reinvestigate this matter and root out the murderer.”

Pang Chun bowed slightly and said, “Yes, I’ll do my best to get to the bottom of this case.”

With the evidence in the case of Yang Wei’s death still inconclusive, the guards escorted Yang Wei’s family members out of the courtroom. Zu An gave Shi Kun a level look. “Surely there were many in the academy who witnessed my competition with Yang Wei, and so most of them should be aware of the fact that he’s left-handed. It’s unlikely that any of them would have made such a careless mistake. If I remember correctly, young master Shi only joined our academy a day after that duel, correct? Ah, that would explain why the true murderer was unaware that Lord Yang was left-handed!”

Shi Kun immediately refuted him. “Zu An, don’t you dare slander me! How could I possibly be the culprit behind Lord Yang’s death?!” he yelled in agitation.

Zu An burst out laughing, “Oh? But I didn’t say that you were the murderer. Why are you getting so agitated?”

Shi Kun ground his teeth audibly to stop himself from speaking.

You have successfully trolled Shi Kun for 523 Rage points!

That bastard! I nearly fell into his trap in a moment of carelessness!

Zu An’s words may have been unfounded, but they did make a lot of sense. The crowd began pointing fingers at Shi Kun as they speculated about the truth surrounding the case, letting their vivid imaginations run wild.

Seeing this, Mei Chaofeng stepped forward bravely to alleviate the sudden scrutiny heaped upon his master. “Even if you aren’t the culprit behind Lord Yang’s death, there’s no way you didn’t have a hand in Plum Blossom Twelve’s and Plum Blossom Thirteen’s deaths!”

Zu An shrugged calmly. “Why don’t you bring out some concrete evidence instead of running your mouth?”

Mei Chaofeng first bowed to Xie Yi and the others before offering his testimony. “A month ago, someone witnessed you leaving the city together with Plum Blossom Twelve. However, you were the only one who returned to Brightmoon City at the end of the day. Based on the results of our investigation, Plum Blossom Twelve died in the Wolf Valley, and there are eyewitnesses who saw you handing over ten goubaos to Divine Physician Ji on the very same day. From this, we can deduce that Plum Blossom Twelve fought hard against the Assrip Wolves to gather a bunch of goubaos, only for you to assault him and steal his loot!”

Zu An rolled his eyes in disdain. “You’ve already said it with your own mouth that it’s a deduction. Evidence! Where’s the evidence!”

“The goubaos are the evidence! Furthermore, there are testimonies from eyewitnesses too. This is the most logical explanation regarding this matter!” argued Mei Chaofeng vehemently.

“With the strength I’ve shown in the dueling ring, I could have just hunted the Assrip Wolves and gathered the goubaos on my own. Why would I need to kill Plum Blossom Twelve for them? Besides, I also have an eyewitness on my side. Back then, the daughter of Divine Physician Ji, Ji Xiaoxi, was with me. She can testify that I collected all of the goubaos by myself.”

“Then how can you explain the fact that the two of you left the city together, but you were the only one who returned?”

Mei Chaofeng was utterly exasperated. The other murder cases had all been forged by them, and they had made sure to plant ample evidence in order to incriminate Zu An. This was the only case where they were certain the murderer was Zu An, and they had been confident that it would work out easily. How was anyone to know that no one would trust him even though he was speaking the truth?

What’s with this injustice in this world?!

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 497 Rage points!

“He met someone named Tan Wei along the way and rushed off to chase after that man, so we ended up parting ways. Is there anything wrong with that?” replied Zu An with an innocent look on his face.

“Based on what I know, Tan Wei is a traitor of the Plum Blossom Sect. It does make sense that Plum Blossom Twelve would split up with Ah Zu to chase Tan Wei.” Chu Zhongtian’s statement gave further credibility to Zu An’s words.

Pang Chun also nodded toward Xie Yi, indicating that he was aware of this matter. With that, Xie Yi slammed the wooden block on the table and declared, “All right! There’s insufficient evidence here to prove that Zu An is the murderer. Next!”

Mei Chaofeng glared at Zu An with gritted teeth. “You might have been able to get by thus far with your glib tongue, but there’s no way you can argue your way out of Plum Blossom Thirteen’s death!”